


All the pretty things that we could be

by maanorchidee



Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dimension Travel, Klaine Advent Drabble Challenge 2018, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-09-05 05:20:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 70,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16804405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maanorchidee/pseuds/maanorchidee
Summary: Both Kurt and Blaine realise that their relationship is growing a bit strained, so when someone tells Blaine that a certain book can help them through it, he buys it without a second thought. Little do Kurt and Blaine know that this book is a portal to different dimensions where their lives are completely different.All the dimensions have one thing in common: Kurt and Blaine have to find each other to prove that their relationship is worth fighting for.





	1. The beginning, pt. 1

**Author's Note:**

> HO HO HO IT IS KLAINE ADVENT TIME. I started planning this story during the previous Advent and I still haven’t fully plotted it, but here we go.
> 
> I see that the Advent is changing it up this time by using two words and I’ll see which one I’ll use, or maybe both.
> 
> This story is (unfortunately) canon up till 5x20, but it changes from that so that I can avoid season 6.
> 
> One last thing: can you guess where the title comes from (it's a song)? I’ll promise you kittens this year.
> 
> Enjoy.

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 1: Athlete  
**

**Own dimension: The beginning, pt. 1**

* * *

Blaine doesn’t dread going home. He never does and he never will. Of that he’s certain. But he does dread the mood Kurt will be in. Kurt had texted him earlier today about how he failed a class. Kurt will be in a sour mood and Blaine won’t be able to fix it.

Kurt keeps assuring Blaine that it’s not his job to fix it, but Blaine is a pleaser. He wants to please people, especially Kurt.

“There’s a difference between supporting a person and fixing a person, Blaine.”

That’s what Kurt always says.

Blaine tries. He really tries. But caring (too much?) is in his nature. It’s not a bad thing, but he has the tendency to blame himself for other people’s problems and he feels a responsibility to fix them, even though the problems have nothing to do with him.

They’re both stressed. After Rachel moved to LA, it was a time of pure bliss. They finally had the loft to themselves. They could do whatever they want. They’d go out on dates and they’d have countless movie nights.

But one day, reality burst their bubble. Kurt and Blaine are still both full-time students at NYADA and it’s not easy. In fact, Blaine’s first year at NYADA is about to come to an end, and it’s been incredibly disappointing.

School causes stress. Jobs cause stress. Apart from Artie, everyone’s left New York and they feel more alone than ever. They love each other, but they need to have lives on their own.

They are annoyed. They snap at each other more often.

They’re both aware of it, but do they have the time to work it out with all the stress of school?

These thoughts float through Blaine’s head as he walks home from NYADA. He knows Kurt’s already home. He knows Kurt will snap.

Blaine knows it’s not his job to fix everything, but oh he wishes he could.

As he walks through New York, his eyes fall on an antique shop. Blaine’s always loved antique shops. He never buys anything, but he loves looking around. Since he’s in a bad mood, he could use some cheering up.

A bell rings as Blaine steps inside and an older man sitting behind the counter greets him warmly. Blaine looks around and he chats with the man.

“Excuse me, young man, but I can’t help but notice that you seem a bit upset?” the man suddenly asks.

Blaine shrugs it off. He’s not in the mood to talk about it. Let him sulk in his own misery.

The man nods, but says: “Of course, but if you need a listening ear, I’m here. The shop’s empty and you look like you could use someone who listens.”

Blaine looks around. The shop is indeed empty and it has been a while since Blaine talked. Sam is busy applying for a job at McKinley since he’s decided to become an athlete, Wes is in Thailand, Elliott has a new boyfriend… it’s been a while since Blaine’s talked about his problems.

He should talk to Kurt. But they’re never in the right mood.

“My fiancé and I are… at an impasse,” Blaine starts.

The man pulls up a chair and he motions for Blaine to sit down.

“We’re both stressed and it’s affecting our relationship. We haven’t properly talked in weeks. We keep snapping and fighting over the most useless things. It’s just not going well. But we both don’t have the time to do something about it, because we’re both full-time students.”

“Don’t you want to make time for this?” the man asks and he frowns, “If you love each other, then you should be able to make time for each other. Don’t you want this to work?”

Blaine’s eyes widen. “Oh, no, it’s not like that. It’s not that we don’t want this to work! In fact, I desperately want this to work. I mean, what’s the alternative? Me moving back home and dating, I don’t know, David Karofsky? No, sir, please don’t think we don’t want our relationship to work.”

The man nods. “Sorry, it is not my place.”

But his words do cut deep. If they love each other so much, then why haven’t they gotten the time to sit down and talk? If they love each other so much, why do they keep making excuses to put off the confrontation?

“What are you looking for, young man?” the man asks.

“Happiness,” Blaine blurts out without thinking. He feels embarrassed, but the man doesn’t seem fazed by it. In fact, it even makes him smile a little bit.

“With him?”

“Yes, obviously.”

The man’s smile widens. He gets up and says: “Excuse me for a moment!” before hurrying away. Blaine’s left speechless. Not only has he unexpectedly poured his heart to some stranger in an antique shop, but now this stranger is running around his shop like he’s looking for something.

“Oh, why is everything so cluttered?” he mutters.

Blaine watches him run away for a couple of minutes, before the man exclaims: “I got it!” He’s holding up a book.

The book is absolutely beautiful, but Blaine knows not to judge a book by its cover. The man sits down again. “Have you ever heard of this book?”

Blaine tries to see a title, but there isn't a title, and he shakes his head.

“They say that this book is there for the loved ones in need. Read this book, and find new meaning in your relationship. If the two of you can survive the stories in this book, you two can survive everything together.”

“… okay?”

“Here,” the man pushes the book in Blaine’s hands, “Have it. Free of charge.”

Blaine protests. He cannot easily accept something that seems valuable for free. Not only that, but Blaine has no idea what this man is talking about.

“Sir, I can’t-”

“You want time to fix your relationship, right?” the man cuts him off.

“Well, yes, of course.”

“Then take this chance.”

Blaine stops protesting. Instead he looks down and he takes in the beautiful cover of the book. At this point, he’s willing to believe everything if it makes his relationship better again. And if this book will have the answers, then why not try?

Blaine buys the book without a second thought.


	2. The beginning, pt. 2

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 2: Bury  
**

**Own dimension: The beginning, pt. 2**

* * *

Kurt’s on a cleaning frenzy.

Well, he knows that he’s always in a mood to clean when he doesn’t want to think about anything else. Cleaning is such a mindless job. He no longer has to think about how he’s failing his class.

Besides, it’s productive and the loft is not as messy as it used to be, now that Rachel has moved out.

And he wants it to be clean for when Blaine comes home.

He and Blaine… it currently feels like they’re just two roommates, sharing the same living space, but apart from that, living separately. Classes are a pain in the ass and Kurt still has his job at the Spotlight Diner. Their schedules clash. They bury themselves in work.

Kurt’s aware of this, and he’s pretty sure that Blaine’s aware of this problem as well.

They need to sit down and talk before the love gets drained out of this relationship and the absolute last thing that Kurt wants is them falling out of love.

They won’t be able to talk today, since Kurt has to be at Spotlight in two hours, but there’s always tomorrow.

At least, that’s what Kurt’s been telling himself for a while now.

It’s not that they don’t talk to each other at all. On the contrary, they talk a lot. They still love each other. They are still around each other. They text when they’re not together. They enjoy each other’s company, but they both don’t remember the last time they had a conversation with depth. Or where they had an evening just to themselves.

They’re not ignoring each other, but they’re ignoring the fact that their relationship is becoming strained.

And sometimes, they annoy each other. In Kurt’s eyes, Blaine tries to hard to do everything right. Kurt’s worried that Blaine will keep ignoring his own well-being, but he can’t tell Blaine that without Blaine getting angry at him.

“You don’t understand.”

But Blaine also makes no effort in making Kurt understand. And honestly, Kurt’s not gonna ask for help. He’s never been good at that. That’s the reason why he hasn’t told his dad about all of this. He does not want his father’s pity. Or Blaine’s.

The door slides open and Blaine’s standing in the doorway. “Hey.”

But before Kurt can say anything back, his eyes fall on the huge book that Blaine’s holding. Blaine follows his gaze and he smiles. “Oh, this? I got it for free in an antique shop. I tried paying the owner, but he insisted on us having it for free.”

“Us?” Kurt asks.

“Yeah, it’s a gift from him to us,” Blaine says and he steps inside. He slides the door shut. “He said it’s a book about proving how much you love each other.”

Kurt tries to keep his expression neutral, but he knows what Blaine is talking about. Kurt was right. Blaine is aware of the ever growing gap between the two of them.

Kurt wants to say something about Blaine telling the story of their lives to a complete stranger, but the look on Blaine’s face is excited. Blaine got this book for the two of them. It’s a book about love.

So instead of snapping, Kurt asks: “What is it about?”

“I don’t know,” Blaine says, “Aren’t you excited to find out? All I know is that this book is very old. After all, it was an antique shop. The shop owner said that this book has been passed down from couple to couple until it eventually ended in his humble shop. If we can survive the stories of this book, we can survive anything.”

“So it’s a storybook?” Kurt asks, still a little bit puzzled. Kurt’s never really believed in higher power or symbolism or superstition, but Blaine does, and he’s so excited to have found a book about true love that it makes Kurt happy as well, despite his cynicism.

“I don’t know,” Blaine admits. He puts the book on the dining table and he takes off his coat. “I tried to look into it, but the shop owner that this book has to be opened by the both of us. Start together and end together, right?”

“Right. I do have to leave for work in like an hour.”

Blaine’s face falls for a moment. He tries to hide it by smiling, but Kurt knows Blaine. Even though they might be in a rough patch, they still know each other.

“The first couple of pages won’t hurt, won’t they?” Blaine asks cautiously, as if he’s expecting Kurt to say no.

But the excited look on Blaine’s face is enough to make Kurt want to do this.

“Only the first couple of pages, okay?” Kurt says and Blaine claps his hands in delight, “After all, I can’t be late. Günther is out to get me, I know it.”

“Günther is a creep,” Blaine says but he immediately walks back to the kitchen. They sit down and Blaine opens the book. Then he frowns.

“It’s empty?” Kurt asks, equally confused.

They skip through a couple of pages. They’re all blank. Blaine’s disappointment is visible.

Kurt turns another page and he squints his eyes. On the bottom of the page is one small word: ‘space’.

It’s so small, it’s barely noticeable. Kurt points towards the word and Blaine looks confused.

“Space?” he asks, “What does that mean?”

They’re about to put the book away, when something weird starts happening. The word ‘space’ is growing.

“You’re seeing this as well, right?” Blaine asks Kurt, “It’s not me?”

The word keeps growing and growing and growing. Kurt and Blaine are looking at it in amazement. Is this some new kind of technology? But it can’t be. This book is antique.

Blaine jumps off his seat when the word keep growing. It’s so big that it’s growing out of the page.

“What the-” Kurt’s also on his feet and he reaches for Blaine as he watches the word grow into his kitchen.

“Are we dreaming? Are we drunk? Are we high?” Blaine yells in shock.

“We can’t be high. Santana took all the drugs with her, right? And you don’t drink!”

The word keeps growing and growing, it starts to grow all around Kurt and Blaine. It keeps growing up until a point where they’re surrounded by the word ‘space’.

“Kurt, love, I don’t fucking know what this is, but I suggest we run and figure it out later,” Blaine yells.

“I agree,” Kurt says back and he takes Blaine’s hand. Together they try to make their way to the door. When Blaine finally reaches the door, he wants to slide it open, but the word is enormous now.

“What is happening?” Kurt yells.

And for a split second, they accidentally let go of each other.

Kurt can no longer see Blaine. The word ‘space’ is all around him.

“Blaine?” he cries out.

“Kurt!” he hears.

“What the fuck!” is the only thing that comes to mind. Slowly, the word space starts to fall apart into smaller words, all ‘space’. Kurt’s surrounded by them. He must be dreaming. _He must be_. How else can he explain that he’s being surrounded by words.

“Blaine?” he says again.

“Kurt?” Blaine sounds more distant than before. It’s as if they’re no longer a couple of feet away. “I’ll find you! Kurt, I’ll find you!”


	3. Space

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of, thanks to all the people on AO3 who’ve sent kudos and who’ve left messages. I am really excited about sharing this story.
> 
> Second, the dimension travel is about to start. The chapters switch point of view between Kurt and Blaine as they try to figure out where they are. Honestly, most AUs/dimensions/whatever you want to call it are just for fun, but sometimes I might add an trigger warning in the chapter notes, but nothing too bad! No worries! I am not Ryan Murphy, I wouldn’t hurt these boys!

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 3: Camera  
**

**Dimension one: Space**

* * *

Blaine reaches around him, but there’s nothing but open space. He opens his eyes and he sees Kurt floating next to him.

In space.

As in actual space, with stars and everything.

At least Kurt’s with him in space. _In space_. Blaine can’t wrap his head around it. The last thing he remembers is watching words surround and attack Kurt. Blaine had grabbed a bag and his phone, but then the words started surrounding him as well.

This must be a really weird dream, because all those words were ‘space’ and now they’re in actual space.

Wait. If they’re in space, how come they’re breathing? Blaine looks down. He’s not even wearing a space suit and neither is Kurt. Blaine’s aware that sci-fi movies and TV shows often fictionalise certain aspects of space travel, but Blaine was certain that there’s no oxygen in space and that the human body cannot survive space without protection.

Blaine tries to speak, but his voice doesn’t carry in space. Kurt’s eyes are closed, so he can’t see Blaine waving.

Suddenly, a flash of light appears and Blaine has to do a double take when a freaking space shuttle appears out of nowhere. It gets even worse when the space shuttle surrounds Blaine in a blue beam and Blaine slowly gets pulled towards the space shuttle.

 _No, no!_ Blaine tries to yell when he sees that Kurt’s not being pulled along. He tries to swim (swim?) back to Kurt, but the beam is too strong. _Kurt, no!_

Blaine gets beamed on board. To his surprise, Wes is standing in front of him.

“Blaine, what the actual hell were you thinking?” he yells, but then he starts to cry and he pulls Blaine into a hug.

“Wes?” Blaine asks, confused.

Suddenly, there’s another hand on his shoulder. Blaine looks over his shoulder and Trent is looking worried. “It’s okay, Blaine, but you do realise we need to check your vitals. You were sucked out of the shuttle without your suit. You should be happy you ended up in an oxygen zone.”

Wes is still sobbing. “We thought we lost you.” Then he presses on his ear. “David, take off!”

The space shuttle rattles and then they take off. Blaine falls over, since he’s not used to it.

“No, Wes, we can’t!” Blaine yells, “We can’t leave Kurt!”

“That McKinley spy is no concern to us,” Wes says coldly. Trent tries to move Blaine towards another place in the space shuttle, probably a hospital wing, but Blaine won’t let that happen.

“What are you talking about?” Blaine says frantically. They just fucking left Kurt in space. “David, take us back!”

“Blaine, you don’t have your comm on you. David can’t hear you,” Trent says.

“Then you tell David to turn back!” Blaine yells.

“Blaine, are you space sick?” Wes asks, clearly worried.

Blaine doesn’t know what to think. His mind is racing. He’s freaking out, because they just left his fiancé in space. The facts that he’s in space and that his friends are a crew on a space shuttle are mind-blowing enough, but he can’t leave Kurt.

He doesn’t know what is going on. He doesn’t know what to think. So he squares up and he stares at Wes. “Wes, I order you to tell David to turn back!”

Wes’s face is stoic, but he says: “Aye, aye, captain.”

* * *

Trent has done some tests and then he changed Blaine into ‘his’ space suit. It’s a purple body suit and it is incredibly uncomfortable, but that is the last of his concerns. He does have two utility belts and a space gun.

He put his own clothes in his bag and he watches David steer back to the oxygen zone.

“It’s empty,” David says and he frowns.

“It can’t be,” Blaine says and his heart drops.

“David, do a check,” Nick says.

David pushes on a couple of buttons and Blaine hears a static noise. David shakes his head. “Blaine, the McKinley spy isn’t here.”

“What happened?” Blaine looks at the monitors, but he can’t understand a thing apart from the sentence NO SIGNS OF LIFE.

“You’ve been missing for a couple of days, Blaine,” Jeff says, “The oxygen zone runs out of oxygen after a while. He wasn’t wearing a suit. Maybe he died and his body…” Jeff trails off when he sees the devastated look on Blaine’s face.

“Are you sure this is the same oxygen zone?” Blaine asks, trying not to sound too frantic.

“We have the best oxygen camera in the universe, Blaine,” Wes says, “You know that. This is the same oxygen zone and he isn’t here.”

“You’re telling me he died?” Blaine says and he feels numb. This can’t be real. They can’t be in space and Kurt can’t be dead.

The other Warblers exchange some confused looks. “Well, it is a possibility, but why are you so ups-”

Trent can’t finish his sentence, because the monitors start to change.

“We’re getting a call!” David says.

“Answer it,” Blaine says. He dries his tears.

Rachel Berry pops up on the screen. “This is the McKinley Air Craft 532850, I am pilot Rachel Barbara Berry calling Dalton Space Shuttle 3058200. Are you receiving me?”

“Rachel!” Blaine yells out, “Yes, we’re here!”

“What do you want?” Wes barks at the screen. Rachel’s face is as stoic as Wes’s.

“Our sergeant Kurt Elizabeth Hummel has requested to talk to your captain. We invite captain Blaine Devon Anderson aboard.”

“Are you kidding me?” David yells angrily.

“No fucking way!” Trent yells.

Jeff is shaking his head furiously.

Rachel rolls her eyes and she looks over her shoulder. “I knew they were going to protest.”

But then Rachel gets pushed out of the screen and Kurt appears on the monitors. He’s wearing a space suit as well, and he’s alive. “Blaine, are you there?”

Nick shakes his head and says: “That is captain Blaine Devon Anderson to you!”

But Blaine pushes David out of his chair. “Kurt, it’s me. How can I meet you?”

“Blaine, oh my god, I’ve been so worried!”

“Where are you, Kurt?” Blaine asks.

“Doesn’t matter. We can set up a meeting, can’t we?”

“Yes, of course. I need to see you.”

The other Warblers are starting to protest again, but Blaine understands that there’s a hierarchy now. “I, Blaine Devon Anderson, captain of the Dalton Space Shuttle with a confusingly long number, accept the invitation of sergeant Kurt Elizabeth Hummel from McKinley Air Craft with an equally confusingly long number.”

* * *

It was a pain in the ass to arrange the meeting. Blaine doesn’t understand why, but the McKinley Air Crafts and the Dalton Space Shuttles are hostile towards each other.

The two space ships connect and Blaine prepares to go to the McKinley Air Craft. The others are not liking it.

“Remember, just say the word and we’ll attack if necessary, or we’ll report them to General Gilbert,” Wes says.

“That won’t be necessary,” Blaine says and he means it. This is Kurt they’re talking about. Besides, Blaine has no idea who General Gilbert is and he isn’t keen to find out. He wants to leave.

“Good luck then,” Wes says and he hugs Blaine tightly. Then, Wes steps back and Blaine gets transported to the other ship, which feels weird. He closes his eyes and when he feels he’s on something solid again, he opens his eyes.

A couple of members of the New Directions are pointing space guns at him. Blaine holds up his hands in the air.

“Lower your guns,” Kurt yells angrily.

Santana, who’s standing right across from Blaine, shakes her head. “Don’t tell me what to do, Kurt!” she yells angrily, “I am in command of this air craft and we will lower our guns when I say so! I know we usually don’t care about the hierarchy and that we treat each other equal, no matter our rank and titles, but when you allow a captain from the enemies in our ship, I will take my role as captain very seriously.”

“You promised me five minutes, Santana,” Kurt says sharply, “Five minutes to talk to him in private.”

Santana locks eyes with Tina and Mike and she nods. Tina and Mike move towards Blaine and they hold him in their grip.

“Hey now!”

They search him and his bag. They take a space gun out of his utility belt and they throw it to Kurt. They also hand Blaine’s bag to Kurt after they realise it’s filled with clothes.

Mike nods towards Santana.

“Lower your weapons, but keep them loaded,” Santana orders and the others follow suit. Then she turns to Kurt. “Five minutes, Kurt. I trust you, but I do not trust him.”

“I trust Blaine with my life,” Kurt says without hesitation.

Some others look confused, but they keep their guns lowered. Santana raises her gun towards Blaine. “If you hurt him I will make sure that General Gilbert will crush your entire fleet, got that?”

Blaine nods quickly and Santana lowers her gun again. Kurt takes Blaine’s hand and he quickly drags them away from all the others.

“Kurt-”

“We have five minutes, Blaine.”

“What happened?”

Kurt shakes his head. “I woke up on this ship and the next thing I know, Mercedes, our medic, is telling me that I’ve been floating in an oxygen zone for a couple of days. I demanded to know where you are and they started talking about Dalton fleets or something. Blaine, sweetie, I am freaking out, but we don’t have time to freak out. We’ve got five minutes.”

“I woke up in the oxygen zone,” Blaine tells him, while Kurt leads them through the air craft, “You were floating unconsciousness next to me. The Dalton Space Shuttle saved me, but I told them to go back to you, but you were gone. They told me you probably died.”

Blaine feels tears forming in his eyes. “I don’t ever want to have to think that again.”

They stop in a room and Kurt cups Blaine’s face. “I am here.”

And then Kurt kisses him.

But they only have four minutes left. “Blaine, I was confused and wandering around this air craft when I found this.”

Kurt picks something up and it’s the book from the antique store. Kurt opens the book and the first page only has one small word, namely ‘space’. But there’s more. There are two outlines of shapes, one hexagonal and one oval.

“How did this get here?” Blaine asks.

Kurt shakes his head. “I asked Artie about it. Apparently, he’s kind of the mechanic here on this air craft, but he has no idea. But what are those shapes?”

Blaine traces the shapes with his finger, but he has no idea. But when he looks at Kurt again, his eyes fall on Kurt’s space suit. Kurt's space suit looks more like an actual astronaut suit, instead of Blaine’s weird purple cat suit.

Kurt’s wearing a crest of McKinley, but there are planets behind the big white M. It’s an oval crest. Blaine know he has shoulder patches on his ugly suit and he also has an emblem on his chest.

Blaine puts his hand on his chest and Kurt’s eyes widen when he sees the hexagonal shape of his emblem. It’s the Dalton flag, but with stars in the background.

“Blaine…” Kurt takes Blaine’s hand and together they click the emblem off Blaine’s suit. Then they do the same for Kurt’s crest. Together, they put their emblem and crest on the page and to their surprise, they disappear into the page, as if they’re images now.

To make matters more interesting, two words appear on the next page.

“Harry Potter?” Blaine reads out loud.

“What the hell is this book?” Kurt picks it up, “Is it magic?”

“Magic? Are you listening to yourself, Kurt?”

“Blaine, we’re in fucking space and our friends hate each other. And this creepy book showed up on my ship. Something is happening.”

Suddenly, there are a couple of knocks on the door. “Kurt, we know you’re in here. Five minutes are over!” Santana says sternly.

Kurt and Blaine look at each other. “What are we going to do?”

But then they notice that the two words ‘Harry Potter’ have started growing. They shouldn’t be surprised after everything that’s happened, but they are.

“Kurt?” Santana keeps banging on the door, “Kurt, are you alive?”

The words start growing and Santana keeps yelling. Blaine grabs Kurt’s hand. He can’t lose him again. They‘ll have to figure out what is going on later.

The words start to surround them and the last thing they see is Santana. She kicks down the door and she runs in, gun raised, with a couple of others. Then, her eyes widen when she sees what’s happening and she lowers her gun in shock. She opens her mouth to say something.

Then it goes white.


	4. Harry Potter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can pry Ravenclaw!Kurt out of my cold dead hands.

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 4: Deputy  
**

**Dimension two: Harry Potter**

* * *

Kurt’s incredibly comfortable in this bed and these silk pyjamas. He turns around a couple of times. He’s not ready to wake up.

He lies in bed for ten more minutes before he forces himself to wake up. He sits up and he rubs the sleep out of his eyes. That’s when he realises that this is not his room.

He’s in some sort of majestic dorm room. It’s a circular room with a couple of beautiful wooden beds with blue covers. There’s stuff everywhere and Kurt doesn’t own it. There are moving photos on the wall.

This is not his loft in New York.

He gets out of bed and he walks down a spiral staircase. Everything is stone. He passes a statue of a woman and he blinks a couple of times when the sudden light of this new room hits him. It’s a large circular room, filled with furniture in different shades of blue, and there are a lot of bookshelves.

“I was about to wake you up, Kurt,” Kurt hears a voice with a British accent. But when Kurt turns around, Mike greets him.

“Wake me up for what?” Kurt asks and he frowns in confusion when he hears he has a British accent as well.

“Mate, put on your robes,” Mike says, “Breakfast’s about to start. Today’s a big day for the school.”

Kurt wants to ask what’s going on, but then he remembers what happened. He and Blaine were in space and they found this weird book from the antique shop in Kurt’s air craft. It had two new words: Harry Potter.

Kurt looks around and he sees all the blue. Then his eyes fall on the symbol on Mike’s, well, cloak. It’s a Ravenclaw symbol. Blaine is the one who knows everything about Harry Potter, but Kurt still has some basic knowledge about this series. Ravenclaw is one of the four Hogwarts Houses.

Kurt is in Hogwarts.

He knows it’s no use to protest. He tried that yesterday on the air craft, and everyone gave him weird looks. He’ll have to find Blaine and they’ll have to figure out what is going on.

Blaine.

“Where’s Blaine?” Kurt asks.

Mike raises an eyebrow. “Who?”

Oh. This is interesting.

* * *

Kurt follows Mike, Tina, Artie, and a couple of other Ravenclaws to the Great Hall. Tina is very excited about this day. Apparently, students from other wizarding schools will arrive today. Kurt looks around, hoping to spot Blaine.

Neither Mike, Tina, or Artie had heard of him, but maybe Blaine’s in another house. But then Rachel, wearing Slytherin robes, greets them at the entrance of the Great Hall, and Mike and Tina clearly know her, even though they’re in different houses. Mercedes, from Hufflepuff house, waves as well. They split up so that they can sit at the tables of their respective houses, but Kurt spots more New Directions members from different houses and they all wave or smile at him.

Blaine is nowhere in sight.

The Ravenclaw table is placed near the Hufflepuff table. Blaine’s always said that he’s a Hufflepuff, and Kurt can see Mercedes, Brittany and Sam chatting with each other, but no Blaine.

“What do you think?”

Kurt gets pulled out of his thoughts. Artie is looking at him.

“I’m sorry, what?”

Tina rolls her eyes. “Kurt, come on. Today’s the big day and we just found out that the headmaster won’t be here to welcome our visitors. I find it appalling and unprofessional. It’s not like we have some kind of deputy headmaster. We’ve got no one now!”

Mike sighs. “I agree, Tina, but we all know our headmaster is busy. We can’t expect our headmaster to be here all the time.”

“But we’re expecting international schools!”

“Wait, international schools?” Kurt asks.

“Yes, obviously!” Tina says, “We’ve been looking forward to this for a fortnight. I can’t believe our school choir is allowed to perform tomorrow. I am glad Rachel didn’t get the solo.”

Mike frowns towards Kurt. “You alright, mate? You seem a bit fazed.”

Kurt quickly says: “Had a rough night.” But then he decides to change the subject back to the international schools. He’s eager to find out what is happening. “So, is this just like when Beauxbatons and Durmstrang visited for the Triwizard Tournament, but without the Tournament?”

“Triwizard Tournament?” Artie asks, “Are you mad? The headmaster has forbidden our school from participating in that nonsense. We haven’t had a Triwizard Tournament in over a century.”

“But didn’t Harry Potter compete in one in 1994?” Kurt asks and he mentally thanks Blaine for being such a big fan, otherwise he wouldn’t have known any of this.

The others all look at each other.

“You know, with Cedric Diggory as the other Hogwarts student, and then against Viktor Krum and Fleur Delacour? There’s this whole thing about Dumbledore calmly asking Harry if he’d put his name in the Goblet of Fire.”

Tina puts a hand on Kurt’s forehead. “Kurt, did Puck prank you again with these weird potions from Zonko’s?”

Kurt swats her hand away. “Are you all looking for a laugh?” he asks, “You certainly must know of Harry Potter? He saved the wizarding world from You-Know-Who.”

“We know who?” Mike asks.

“Come on, headmaster McGonagall must’ve told you about him.”

“Who?” Artie asks, looking worried.

“McGonagall. You know, she took over from Dumbledore after Harry Potter defeated He Who Must Not Be Named.”

“Kurt, headmaster Gilbert has been the headmaster for decades,” Tina says. Then she turns to Mike. “I’m going to kill Puck for this.”

Artie wheels back from the table. “Come on, Kurt, I’m taking you back to our dorm. You know these joke potions, you need to sleep it off.”

“But…” he looks around. Still no sign of Blaine. Then it hits him. “The international students?” Blaine is nowhere to be seen, but maybe that’s because he’s not in Hogwarts.

“The students from Mahoutokoro, Ilvermorny and Uagado will still be here, Kurt,” Tina says, “Go with Artie and get some rest. You need to be able to sing or Rachel will duel you.”

Kurt has the feeling he can’t protest. If he does, the others will probably bring him to the hospital wing, so he reluctantly follows Artie to the Ravenclaw tower. Artie’s wheelchair can float over the many stairs.

Kurt’s confused. He knows he’s not as big of a Harry Potter fan as Blaine, but you don’t have to be a fan to know the story. Harry Potter is incredibly famous.

Artie leads him to the dorm and he tells Kurt to rest. Then he leaves Kurt alone. The moment Artie shuts the door, Kurt gets out of bed and he starts looking around. There’s a small nightstand with a drawer next to his bed.

In it are his wand and a couple of books. Kurt takes the wand with him and he leaves the rest. He checks if the coast is clear and after he’s certain that Artie is gone, he slips out of the dorm and he starts looking around in the common room. Kurt could go to the library to find information, but this common is room is practically a library of itself.

As expected, Kurt finds a couple of books about Hogwarts (including the famous Hogwarts: A History) and he soon finds out that the history of this Hogwarts does not line up with the Harry Potter books.

Suddenly, the door to the Ravenclaw common room flies open. Kurt tries to come up with an excuse, so that he wouldn’t worry his friends, but to his surprise, Blaine is standing in the door opening and he’s wearing a black waistcoat and brown breeches. He has his bag with him. That’s not a Hogwarts costume.

Kurt drops the book he was reading.

“Kurt!” Blaine yells out.

“Blaine!”

Blaine tackles Kurt into a hug. “I found you. I had to sneak away, but when I saw you weren’t in the Great Hall, I figured you’d might be in your common room.”

Kurt quickly kisses Blaine’s cheek and says: “Where were you?”

“I was on a magical blimp from Ilvermorny to Hogwarts with some of the Warblers. When I arrived in the Great Hall, I saw New Directions members, so I knew you had to be here somewhere. The Ravenclaw Tower is very, very high, you know that? I had to take off my robes because it got too hot to climb all these stairs. By the way, you sound great with a British accent.” Blaine smiles.

Kurt rolls his eyes, but he smiles as well. Unfortunately, they don’t have time for this.

“Blaine, this antique book… there’s something wrong with it.”

Blaine laughs. “Yeah, no kidding.”

“We saw the word ‘space’ and we get transported into a space adventure. Then the words ‘Harry Potter’ appear, and we are in a Harry Potter-esque world. It’s weird. This is clearly Harry Potter’s world, but no one’s heard of him.”

Kurt picks up the book that he had dropped. There’s no sign of the infamous Harry Potter characters like Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hemione Granger, Draco Malfroy, Dumbledore and who else.

“Yes, I figured out that something’s wrong the moment the others didn’t know a thing about the Goldsteins. They are well-known Ilvermorny alumni. It’s as if we’re indeed transported into the setting only, but not into the actual story.”

“How do we get out of here?”

Blaine frowns. “You can’t be serious, Kurt. You know we have to find that fucking book. I think we should start at the Hogwarts library.”

* * *

The library is closed because of the festivities, but that won’t stop Blaine. He points his wand towards the door. “ _Alohomora_.”

The door unlocks. “For such a great school, the security is pretty bad,” Kurt says as they enter the library.

Blaine laughs. “Have you ever read the books, love? Security and Hogwarts don’t go along.”

“Fair point. _Lumos_.”

“ _Lumos_.”

The library is huge and dark. It’s going to take ages to find that antique book and it won’t take long before someone notices that both Kurt and Blaine are gone.

“Does the book have a name?” Kurt asks.

Blaine shakes his head. “The book has a wonderful cover, but it has no title. I mean, I can always try. _Accio_ antique book we’re looking for!”

Nothing happens and Kurt groans in frustration. “We can’t manually go through all these books and maybe the book isn’t even in here.”

But then Blaine has an idea. “Let’s try the Restricted Section. Madam Pince, or whoever the librarian is in this version of Harry Potter, isn’t here to guard it.”

The two of them easily jump over the robe dividing the Restricted Section from the rest of the library. Security is really scarce here, but if there’s never been a war in this Harry Potter universe, then maybe there’s no need for extreme security.

And Blaine was right.

The book is lying in plain sight, as if it was waiting to be found. Kurt and Blaine do not hesitate. They immediately flip it open.

On the first page is the word ‘space’ written, with underneath the images of Kurt’s McKinley Air Craft crest and Blaine’s Dalton Space Shuttle emblem.

On the second page, the words ‘Harry Potter’ are written and underneath are two more outlines of shapes. It’s pretty obvious what they are: wands.

“So, this is what the book wants?” Kurt says, “We have to find the book and the two objects every time. And then we can go home.”

“I’m not sure if we can go home, Kurt,” Blaine sighs, “We got transported to another dimension or story or universe or whatever this is. Remember what the shop owner said? ‘If the two of you can survive the stories in this book, you two can survive everything together’. How many more stories will there be?”

“Let’s find out as soon as possible, so that we can go home?”

Kurt puts his wand on the page and as expected, it vanishes into the page only to return as an image.

But Blaine seems to hesitate.

“Blaine, put your wand on the page.”

“Do we have to leave?” Blaine asks slowly.

“Of course we have to leave. We have to go home!” Kurt says, but Blaine only tightens his grip on his wand. Kurt frowns. “Don’t you want to go home?”

“So that we can go back to barely seeing each other and snapping at each other when we do?” Blaine says sarcastically, “Wow, how much I miss that.”

“Blaine, we can’t stay here.”

“Can’t we?” Blaine says, “Or don’t you want to?”

Kurt wants to say something, but it falls silent. In a way, Kurt is right. Yes, he’s lost Blaine twice in two different dimensions, but they found each other fairly easy. They left space because Santana was about to kill Blaine otherwise, but there’s no acute reason to leave the Harry Potter setting.

But this is not their lives. If they stay here, they might have to start over again and they might loose all they have in their ‘real lives’.

Kurt tells him so. Blaine sighs and to Kurt’s surprise, Blaine puts down his wand on the page. Blaine still shakes his head as he steps back, but he takes Kurt’s hand. “Up to the next story or dimension.”

“Or whatever this is.”

“Or whatever this is,” Blaine repeats.

And besides, till now, every dimension has been fairly easy to navigate. They found each other easily. Maybe travelling through these stories won’t be so bad, because Blaine is right, they have more time for each other now. What could go wrong?

Blaine’s wand disappears into the book and it comes back as an image of the wand. Kurt turns the page and his stomach falls when he sees the new word on the page.

‘Apocalypse’.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A couple of years ago, I kind of studied wandlore and I designed a wand for most of the New Directions characters. The process took longer than I expected, but I am still pretty proud of them, and therefore I want to share Kurt and Blaine’s wands with you [here](http://forabeatofadrum.tumblr.com/post/180791586373/kurt-and-blaines-wands-from-chapter-four-of-all).


	5. Apocalypse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhm. Hi. Remember when I said I wasn’t going to make this too angsty? That didn’t really happen because…
> 
> _TW: (major) character death_
> 
> Again, no worries! Apart from this I have nothing all too bad planned. This chapter is just sad. If you want to know more, please go to the end notes to see more details about this TW.

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 5: Exclude  
**

**Dimension three: Apocalypse**

* * *

Someone is shaking Blaine awake.

“Blaine, holy fuck. Holy fuck, please stay with me!”

It’s Wes. Blaine slowly opens his eyes and he’s hurt. He doesn’t know why he’s hurt. Suddenly, they hear an explosion and Wes basically throws himself on Blaine to shield him.

That’s when Blaine remembers what happened. Kurt and Blaine found the antique book in the Hogwarts Library and when they saw the word ‘apocalypse’ growing, they tried to run from it. Blaine even used non-verbal spells against it, but it didn’t work.

He’s in the middle of an apocalypse and Kurt is nowhere to be seen.

Wes is still lying on top of Blaine, but when the explosion dies away, he climbs up. He puts his arm around Blaine. “Come on, we’re the only ones left.”

Wes helps Blaine move. Apparently, Blaine’s leg got stuck somewhere. Blaine pretends to be confused to get information. According to Wes, this world was inhabited by groups of people and he and Blaine were from the Dalton group.

Then, the Earth started to collapse. The Dalton group had been on their way to a safe haven, but the apocalypse took many lives. Blaine and Wes are the only ones left. David died yesterday, giving his life for Wes. Wes is not over it.

Not only that, but Wes has never heard of Kurt.

The safe haven is a myth, but it’s worth a try. Wes speaks highly of a certain man named Gilbert, who salvaged a piece of land to create a safe haven. People from all kinds of groups are travelling to find it, so that they can survive.

“Wes,” Blaine says. It’s difficult to speak. “Wes, you’re hurt.”

Wes has a huge wound on his head, but he shakes his head. “Doesn’t matter, buddy. The moment Gilbert will take us in, it will have been worth it. Gilbert takes everyone in. No one gets excluded.”

“We- we don’t even know if he’s real,” Blaine says.

“I know, but it’s the only hope we’ve got left,” Wes says, “Blaine, everyone died so that we could reach the safe haven. Trent fell from the ledge, Nick shielded us from the debris, Jeff got shot… and so on. We can’t give up.”

Blaine nods. They move for hours and Blaine’s exhausted, but they have to keep going.

He has to find Kurt. There are injured people all around them. Some are weeping next to the bodies of the dead. Blaine hasn’t seen Kurt yet and for the first time, it’s a relief. What Blaine doesn’t know won’t hurt him.

Maybe Kurt’s on his way to the safe haven as well. Maybe they’ll find the book there. Wes is right: they can only hope.

They keep on moving. Every now and then they stop to eat. They’re running out of food, but thanks to the heavy rain, there’s enough water. Blaine’s bag is still filled with the clothes he took off in space. It’s useless, but he can’t ditch his bag.

“Where is this safe haven?” Blaine asks as he eats the small amount of berries. Wes had stolen them from others. Blaine doesn’t like it, but he supposes Wes had no choice.

“They say it’s in what’s left of Lima, Ohio,” Wes says.

 _Lima, a safe haven?_ Blaine wants to laugh at the absurdity, but he’s too tired.

“We’re in what’s left of Fort Shawnee, we can make it tomorrow!” Wes says and despite everything, he has a genuine smile on his face.

* * *

Blaine wakes up because it’s so loud.

Wes is sitting next to him. “Bombs!” He helps Blaine get up. “We gotta go! We gotta go now!”

They gather up all the stuff that they own (two bags and a knife each) and they run. Or at least, Blaine tries to run. His leg hurts and he can hear the bombs falling behind him. “If this is an apocalyptic world, then why the fuck are there bombs?!”

“Blaine, please, we both know about the outbreak of the wars!” Wes yells.

Great. Apparently this apocalypse caused wars. Blaine’s sorry he asked.

They move as fast as they can. Blaine refuses to look around. People are crying. Blaine tries to focus on the safe haven and on finding Kurt and that stupid book. He knows this isn’t real, but the pain is real. Blaine’s sure that if he dies in this story or dimension, he’s dead. If only he still had the magic from Harry Potter or the space gun from their space adventure. No, he only has a pained leg, stolen berries, and a small knife.

“There!” Wes points towards a small abandoned building. It doesn’t look safe. In fact, it looks like it’s about to collapse, but maybe they can hide in it for now. The bombs are getting closer.

“Why the fuck would people use an apocalypse for a war? Isn’t life terrible enough?”

“If only I knew, Blaine, if only I knew…” Wes says solemnly. They make their way to the abandoned building, but then Wes trips.

Blaine tries to help him get up. “Wes, come on, man.”

“I’m trying!” Wes says angrily, but he’s stuck in something. The ground is filled with mess and Wes is stuck. The bombs are getting closer.

“Fuck!” Blaine says and he pulls Wes’s arm and Wes isn’t moving.

Wes looks behind them and he starts to cry. “Okay,” he says.

“What’s okay? Nothing’s okay!” Blaine yells.

Wes turns back to Blaine and he has a weird look on his face. Blaine has a bad feeling about this.

“Go, Blaine. The building might shelter you enough to survive this-”

“Wes, what the fuck? No!” Blaine knows what Wes is doing. He’s saying goodbye. Wes keeps talking but Blaine isn’t listening. He’s still trying to get Wes free.

“Blaine, please!” Wes yells, “If I’m going to fucking die, then let me have my piece!”

“You are not going to die! We’re so close. We can make it. We’ll be in Lima tomorrow, we’ll find the safe haven, we can both survive this.”

Wes shakes his head. Why the hell is Wes shaking his head? It’s as if he wants to die.

“Can’t you see it, Blaine? It was always supposed to be you,” Wes says through his tears, “We all died to protect you. From all of the Dalton group, you are the most valuable.”

“That’s bullshit, Wes!” Blaine yells and he tries not to cry. He’s still trying to pull Wes out of this mess. “We’re equal!”

“We’ve never been equal, Blaine,” Wes says sadly, “You just treated us as equal.”

Blaine doesn’t know this world. This is not his world. He has no idea of the history of this world or why Blaine’s supposedly more valuable, but he doesn’t care.

“Wes-”

“You, Blaine, are my best friend and I will always be there with you, just like the rest of us, okay?”

“Fucking- stop, Wes.”

“I love you, okay? You are supposed to be the one who helps rebuilding our land. You are the one who’s gonna survive this. I am really, really sorry for this.”

Wes yanks free from Blaine’s grip and he fishes his own knife out of his bag. He hands it to Blaine. “Take it and leave me. If you don’t, I’ll stab myself.”

“Fucking hell, Wes!” Blaine yells.

Wes holds out the knife.

Either Wes’s gonna get bombed to death or he’s gonna stab himself. “Please, take the knife, Blaine,” Wes say and he’s still crying, “I don’t want to kill myself.”

The bombs are coming closer. Blaine can see them falling. Blaine has no other choice. He takes the knife and Wes sighs in relief.

“Run,” Wes demands.

Blaine’s leg is still hurt, so he can’t really run. But he makes it to the abandoned building and to his relief, it has a basement. He stumbles down the stairs and he hides in a corner. Bombs fall on the building and the world shakes.

Blaine curls up in a ball. Wes is dead.

 _This isn’t real,_ he reminds himself. _This isn’t real. This isn’t real. This isn’t real. The moment I get home, I’ll call Wes, who’s still in Thailand. This isn’t real. Wes isn’t dead. Neither is David or Trent or Jeff or Nick. This isn’t fucking real._

Yet it feels real.

He has to find Kurt and they have to get out of here. _This isn’t real._

* * *

“Hey, can you hear that?”

Blaine knows that voice.

“What?” someone else says.

“I thought I heard weeping. Hello? Hello!?”

Blaine tries to speak, but instead he cries. He’s clutching Wes’s knife. It’s all that he has left. Blaine doesn’t know if he should love or hate it.

“There’s a survivor underneath the ruins of this building! Quick, get the others!”

The bombs have stopped. There’s life outside. Blaine wails till the voices are nearer.

“There’s a staircase, someone is down here!”

“Help me move this stone.”

“Jesus, this is heavy.”

“Hello? Anyone here? It’s okay, we’re here to help!”

Blaine clears his throat. “I’m here, please help me!”

“I knew it!”

“Someone’s alive. Jesus, _someone’s survived the bombs!_ ”

“First aid kit, quickly!”

“Damn, shit, this stone really is heavy!”

“Okay, all of us together. Lift on three, okay?”

Blaine hears some murmurs of agreement.

“One… two… three!”

Blaine gets blinded by the sudden light. He can only see a couple of silhouettes, but Blaine knows these people.

“Oh my God!” Rachel yells and she runs down the stairs.

“Someone give me the first aid kit!” Sam yells behind his back.

Puck and Tina run down the stairs as well and they help Rachel lift Blaine. “Sam, please, he’s bleeding!” Tina cries out.

Blaine hadn’t even noticed that he’s bleeding. He’s been too busy grieving.

More New Directions members enter the basement, but Kurt’s nowhere in sight. “It’s okay, we’re from the McKinley group. We’re the New Directions rescue team,” Brittany says and Sam starts wrapping bandages around Blaine’s head. Blaine tells him his leg hurts.

“We’re a rescue team working for Gilbert’s Safe Haven. We are so happy we’ve found you,” Santana says and Blaine almost cries again when he sees she has actual food with her.

The safe haven, it’s real. Blaine feels relief. Wes has been right.

At the thought of Wes, Blaine starts to wail harder. “My friend, he’s out there… he’s…”

Santana shakes her head solemnly. “I am so sorry, we’ve only found bodies. There’s no sign of life in this area.”

There’s no sign of life. Wes really did die out there.

“Do you remember who you are and where you’re from?” Tina asks.

“Blaine Anderson, from Dalton group,” Blaine answers and he really hopes it’s enough information.

“It’s okay, Blaine from Dalton,” Santana says soothingly as she runs a hand through Blaine’s hair, “You’re safe. We’ve got you.”

“I’m going to give you a sedative so that we can move you to the safe haven. This is going to hurt,” Sam says.

Blaine’s already hurt.

* * *

When Blaine wakes up, he’s hallucinating. After all, Kurt’s sitting next to his bed.

“Oh my- you’re awake!”

This hallucination seems very real. Blaine smiles. Let him have this before he’ll get sucked back in this apocalyptic reality.

But then, the hallucination takes Blaine’s hand. Blaine’s pretty sure hallucinations aren’t supposed to be solid. Then again, he’s never had previous encounters with hallucinations.

“Blaine, can you hear me?” hallucination-Kurt asks ,”It’s me, I’m real.”

Oh, Blaine would love to believe that. But then Kurt starts touching his face and maybe he is real.

“Kurt?” Blaine asks and Kurt bursts into tears.

“Jesus Christ!” Kurt sobs, “I woke up in an apocalyptic dimension without my fiancé. Then, Rachel tells me that I am part of the New Directions rescue team or what not and that I am medic. Good thing I know some basic stuff Carole taught me, so I haven’t blown my cover. I’m just here, surrounded by hurt people, when suddenly you get dragged in.”

Then Kurt starts shaking him.

“Do not ever worry me like that again, Blaine Devon Anderson! What the hell happened to you? Sam said something about you crying in a basement and bombs?”

Blaine tries to speak, but at the thought of Wes, he starts to cry. Eventually, he manages to say: “We have to get the fuck out of here! We can’t- we have to go. I am so sorry for suggesting we’d stay in different dimensions. You were right all along, we have to go home!”

“None of that now,” Kurt says and he wipes away Blaine’s tears, “This is not your fault.”

“We need that book!”

Kurt nods. “No worries, I have it.”

“You do?”

“Yes, it’s been in this safe haven for ages. No one knows what it is, except for me.”

“You should’ve gotten out of here as soon as possible,” Blaine says, but Kurt shakes his head.

“And leave you? To quote Mercedes: hell to the no. I did already put my object on the page. It is a stupid stethoscope. I haven’t been able to figure out your object.” Kurt helps Blaine sit up. “We are getting out of here right now.”

Blaine tries to get out of the bed, but Kurt stops it. “I’ll get the book. I haven’t lost it out of sight ever since I got here. Sam mentioned that you have problems walking, so please stay here.”

Kurt leaves the hospital room but he returns quickly. He’s holding the book. Blaine hates it.

Kurt flips open the book. Blaine can read the word ‘apocalypse’ and underneath the word is an image of a stethoscope. Next to it is an outline.

It’s clearly supposed to be Wes’s knife.

Blaine burst out in tears. Kurt’s worried so Blaine tells Kurt what has happened and about how this knife belonged to Wes.

“He’s dead, Kurt, he died saving me. He died to get me here!”

Kurt wraps his arms around Blaine. “It’s not real, Blaine, it’s okay. Wes is still chilling in Thailand. This is not our reality. This is not real.”

“But it feels so real,” Blaine sobs, “You should’ve seen the look on his face when he realised he was going to die. And we were so close! We almost made it. The New Directions rescue team found me, for Christ’s sake. That’s how close we were.”

Kurt lets Blaine cry, but after a while he asks: “Do you still have the knife?”

Blaine has no idea, but he nods towards his bag. Someone put it on the nightstand next to his hospital bed.

Kurt rummages through the stuff in Blaine’s bag. He first finds Blaine’s knife, but Blaine shakes his head. It’s the wrong shape anyway. Then he finds Wes’s knife. Someone must’ve put it in Blaine’s bag and Blaine’s forever grateful.

He watches the knife disappear into the page and a new word starts to form on the next page. A part of him doesn’t want to look. He can’t take it anymore. He closes his eyes.

But he’s also eager to move on to the next dimension. It can’t be worse than this one.

“Famous,” Kurt reads out loud, “What does that even mean?”

Blaine opens his eyes. There’s indeed a new word, namely ‘famous’, and it starts to grow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blaine and Wes are stuck in an apocalypse and Wes dies. Blaine has to leave him behind, so you don’t actually “witness” his death, since Blaine is the narrator and he gets away, but it is pretty clear that Wes has suffered a terrible death (bombed to death).
> 
> Maybe a bit too dark, but this dimension was supposed to be some sort of lesson: this dimension hopping is more serious than that they thought and this could be dangerous.
> 
> No worries, next chapter will be lighter.


	6. Famous

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again thank you for the comments. I am not great at reacting to comments, so I don’t usually do it, unless I have something specific to say.
> 
> Happy reading!

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 6: Festival  
**

**Dimension four: Famous**

* * *

When Kurt opens his eyes, he sees his bedroom in the loft. He can’t believe he’s in the loft. Well, maybe not _his_ loft, but the loft in this dimension. Still, it’s refreshing to wake up in a somewhat familiar environment and not in an air craft, or a Ravenclaw dorm, or a hospital in a safe haven.

Wow, he’s seen too much in these past few days.

He slowly gets out of bed to get dressed and he tries to figure out if something’s changed. He knows he’s not really home.

Suddenly, he hears Rachel singing.

Yup, he’s not home. Rachel in his dimension has moved to LA.

Kurt gets dressed and he takes a deep breath before drawing the curtains around his bedroom. It’s time to face the day. It’s time to figure out where he is this time. It is kind of tiring, but Kurt has to keep on going. After all, he really wants to go home to _his_ loft.

God, he misses his dimension, his home, he’s even starting to miss Günther and the Spotlight Diner.

Rachel is making tea in the kitchen. “Oh hello!”

“Hey Rachel,” Kurt says.

He doesn’t know if he’ll get used to this dimension hopping, or whatever this is. In every dimension, his friends are with him. They were his fellow crew members in space, they were his classmates in Hogwarts, and they were part of the same rescue team during the apocalypse. They’re always there, and yet, they also aren’t really there. These aren’t _his_ friends. This isn’t _his_ Rachel. These are the friends of the version of Kurt that exists in this dimension.

Although this dimension looks a lot like his own so far. There are no space guns, or magic wands, or bomb threats.

There is one vital thing missing, though: Blaine.

Kurt looks around while Rachel speaks. There is absolutely no sign of Blaine in this loft. His stuff isn’t here and Kurt’s pretty sure this Rachel has never heard of him. By now he knows it’s useless to ask.

“Don’t you miss Santana?”

Kurt gets pulled out of his thoughts. “Hm, I’m sorry, what?”

“Santana,” Rachel sighs and she looks around, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I miss her. But I suppose we should’ve seen this coming.”

Kurt just nods. He has no idea what Rachel’s talking about.

“Luckily, she isn’t too far away. After all, she lives three blocks away, but the loft is emptier without her attitude,” Rachel says solemnly.

Yes, Kurt is definitely in another dimension. In his dimension, Rachel and Santana are friends again, but Rachel would never speak this fondly of Santana.

“And of course, we’ll see her tonight.”

“Of course,” Kurt says, not knowing what he’s agreeing to.

“After all, I am glad she and Dani finally found a place to live,” Rachel rattles on, unaware of the fact that Kurt is not her Kurt, “They’ve been dating for a while now and honestly, I can hear wedding bells!”

Ah yes, another reminder that Kurt does not belong here. He knows that in his dimension, Santana has left the city to tour with Brittany as Mercedes’s back up. Kurt really thinks he’ll never get used to this. And this dimension makes it quite difficult, since it’s like his own dimension.

Kurt realises this dimension is a lot like his own when Rachel starts talking about their shift at the Spotlight Diner.

* * *

Kurt takes it back. He doesn’t miss Günther and the Spotlight Diner anymore. No matter what dimension he’s in, his job is pretty terrible.

“Just think of tonight, Kurt!” Rachel keeps saying during the shift, “We’ve been looking forward to it for ages!”

Kurt has absolutely no idea what she’s referring to and he also has no idea how to ask without raising suspicion. After all, Kurt’s supposed to be very excited about whatever’s happening tonight, so him asking Rachel what is going on is too suspicious.

So instead, he focuses on work and he saves absolutely everything he gets a hold of. He puts his pen in his bag for later. He tells himself to take his nametag with him. In the kitchen, Kurt drops ketchup and he takes it with him. All of this could be his possible object for the book. Since he is stuck here, he can’t go out to look for Blaine, but he also doesn’t want to waste his time, so he saves every small trinket that might be significant.

But for a very long time, nothing interesting happens. That is until two teenage girls and their parents decide to have lunch in the Spotlight Diner. They’re clearly tourists and while the parents are talking about the historical landmarks in New York City, the girls are fawning over something on their phones.

“No, David is totally the hottest!” one girl says.

Her friend shakes her head. “Are you kidding, have you seen Jeff?”

“Yes, but Jeff is dating Nick, so they’re both completely unavailable! Wes is single, though.”

They’re talking about the Warblers, or at least this version of the Warblers. So far, Blaine’s always been with the Warblers. They were his space crew, and they all attended Ilvermorny, and Blaine had mentioned that they had all died to save him during the apocalypse.

Kurt knows this is Rachel’s section, but he can’t let this opportunity slide.

“Hello, my name is Kurt and I will be your waiter today,” he says, “Can I get you anything to drink?” Over their heads, Kurt can see that Rachel’s shooting him a confused look.

The parents order something, but the girls are still giggling about something on their phones. One of the dads snaps his fingers.

“Hello! Earth to Alyssa and Sabine!” he says, “Drinks?”

The girls mumble their orders and Kurt has a hard time understanding them. One of the moms looks apologetic.

“I am so sorry for the girls,” she says, “We’ve come to New York to attend a concert and the girls have been screaming about it non-stop. My wife and I have grown tired of the generic pop music, but if it makes them happy, then we’re happy.”

“This unfortunately means that the girls are a bit occupied,” the other dad says, “Honestly, my husband and I are hoping for the craze to die down. This festival is going to be packed.”

Kurt nods. “Oh, I completely understand. My roommate has had some obsessive moments as well,” he says and they all laugh, except for the girls, who are talking excitedly. Then Kurt asks: “What concert will you be attending?”

“The Warblers,” the other mom sighs, “They’re the biggest boyband right now.”

“We’re from New Jersey, so New York is relatively close. The girls bought the tickets the moment the pre-sale started.”

Even though Kurt has the information he needs, he talks a little bit more. He likes these people. He doesn’t really learn anything new, but these little things make his day better.

* * *

After the shift, Kurt’s tired. He really doesn’t miss the Spotlight Diner anymore.

Why is Kurt still working there? Well, money, but his dad is a Congressman, he can pitch in. Kurt’s mood deflates at the thought of having to ask his dad for help. Kurt’s never been good at asking for help, because it makes him feel like a failure.

But the job is really shitty and it does keep him away from Blaine. After the apocalypse, Kurt realised how serious this dimension hopping is. Up until then, he saw it as something annoying or as a joke. Some weird book trying to play with them. But their lives might be in danger and the thought of losing Blaine hurts.

Is his job at Spotlight Diner worth it?

Kurt doesn’t think so. Maybe he should set aside his pride and form a plan with his dad.

* * *

Back in the loft, Kurt wants to google The Warblers, but Rachel stops him.

“Get dressed,” she says.

“But we still need to shower?” Kurt remind her. They smell like cheap fries and milkshakes.

“Have you lost your head! There’s no time!”

Kurt doesn’t have the energy to protest, so he does as she says. He feels gross, but he still doesn’t want to seem suspicious. Then again, him agreeing to not showering is suspicious to him, but maybe he’s not as proper in this dimension. Kurt can’t see it happening, but you never know.

Rachel is dressed perfectly so Kurt dresses up as well. He has no idea where they’re heading, but he prepares himself for a night out. Maybe he can find a way to attend that concert of The Warblers.

Others arrive as well. Sam, Mercedes and Santana never left the city in this dimension. Santana has Dani in tow and Sam says Artie is waiting outside.

Mercedes hands Kurt a ticket and Kurt’s jaw drops when he sees that he’s holding a star-shaped ticket to the concert of The Warblers.

“Holy shit,” he says before he can stop himself, but he’s too excited. Maybe reaching Blaine wouldn’t be too hard.

“Oh man, yeah,” Sam says, “I know, right? It’s finally happening.”

“I’m so excited,” Rachel says.

Mercedes nods.

Kurt can’t believe he’s in a dimension where most of his friends seem to enjoy generic pop music, but he just rolls with it. He’s going to see Blaine in Madison Square Garden. His heart soars when he sees the venue, because despite the fact that they’re in a different dimension, Kurt feels proud of Blaine.

“Let’s go!” they hear Artie yell.

* * *

The music is, quite frankly, terrible.

That one mother wasn’t lying when she described it as generic pop music. Now, there’s nothing wrong with generic pop music, because there are a lot of great pop artists out there, but The Warblers are not that.

Everyone around him has absolutely lost themselves into the music. Kurt’s more focused on Blaine.

Blaine is standing on the stage and he looks very uncomfortable. He’s the lead singer and he plays guitar. Wes is on drums, Trent on bass, David has an electric guitar and both Nick and Jeff provide background vocals.

And they suck.

Kurt dances along because he doesn’t want to raise suspicion. His eyes are on Blaine and he’s trying to come up with a plan, but they don’t have VIP tickets. Kurt knows that fans always tend to wait outside the venues, but he doesn’t want to waste that much time.

The concert slowly starts to finish up, to Kurt’s delight. He has no concrete plan, but he just needs to find a way to ditch his friends and sneak backstage.

On stage, The Warblers end their set and they take a bow. The crowd goes wild. Kurt’s friends are all focused on The Warblers and Kurt sees that as a chance to go away.

As expected, security is tight, so sneaking in wasn’t easy, but it worked out. Kurt has no idea how he did it, but maybe he’s just unnoticeable, or maybe this dimension does have its perks. He walks around and he hears The Warblers.

“Awesome show,” Trent says.

“Yeah, whatever,” David sighs, “Time to greet some money throwing fans and then hit the bed.”

“I honestly can’t wait for this tour to end,” Jeff says sadly.

“We signed up for this,” Wes says, “Literally. We signed that contract.”

Nick says something, but Kurt can’t make it out, because someone taps on his shoulder. A big security guard is looking down on Kurt. “Excuse me, but I don’t think you are permitted here.”

The security guard takes Kurt by the arm and he drags him out of hiding. Kurt tries to protest, but the guard is strong.

Luckily for Kurt, they attracted some attention.

“Wait!”

Both Kurt and the guard look at Blaine. Kurt smiles widely when he sees him.

“He’s with me,” Blaine says quickly and the other Warblers give him a skeptical look. The guard doesn’t buy it either.

“I don’t see a pass, and he was sneaking around, Mr. Anderson.”

“Trust me,” Blaine says, “It’s my fault, but he’s definitely with me. Hey Kurt.”

“Hey Blaine,” Kurt waves with his free hand, “Great show out there.”

Blaine smiles weakly. “Yeah,” he says and you can hear a hint of sarcasm, “Did you, uhm, get here by yourself?”

“No, Santana, Rachel, Mercedes, Sam, Dani and Artie are here somewhere in this mess of a crowd,” Kurt answers and Blaine nods. Kurt nods towards the other Warblers. “You’re with your friends as well.”

“Again,” Blaine says and Kurt knows for sure that Blaine has also realised that both the Warblers and the New Directions are part of this dimension hopping in a way. Blaine turns to the guard. “It’s all good.”

The guard reluctantly lets go of Kurt and Blaine takes his hand before anyone else can grab him.

“Thanks!”

Blaine wants to take Kurt somewhere, but the others stop him.

“Blaine, we have to meet fans, remember?” David reminds him.

“I’ll, uh, catch up. I have to talk to Kurt,” Blaine says.

The other Warblers share some confusing and worried looks.

“Are you okay?” Wes asks and frowns, “You’ve been acting weird. You basically forgot all of our lyrics and you’ve been hovering over that weird book in our dressing room all afternoon.”

Kurt’s eyes widens. Blaine already has the book.

“I, uh…”

“Also, you’ve been weird around Wes all day, man,” David says, “Like, you literally started crying during our meeting this morning.”

Blaine’s grip in Kurt’s hand tightens. Blaine’s still not over Wes’s death from the apocalyptic world. Kurt squeezes Blaine’s hand in support.

Nick’s staring at them holding hands. “Oh.”

And then, all The Warblers start to smile.

“Congrats!” David pulls both Kurt and Blaine in a hug.

“Dude, we had no idea!” Wes says happily.

“This totally explains your distant behaviour,” Jeff says and Nick nods.

“Oh my god, I am so happy for you!” Trent says and he claps his hand, “We know you’ve been lonely.”

The mood has completely changed and The Warblers are basically pushing Kurt and Blaine towards the dressing room.

“Go, we won’t disturb you!” Wes laughs, “We tell the fans you’ll be a bit late.”

“Only if you introduce your new man to us when we get back,” Jeff adds.

“We do have to discuss this with Gilbert later, but go have fun for now. The PR madness and all that professional shit will have to wait!”

Blaine nods. “Thanks guys.”

Blaine takes Kurt towards the dressing room and some of The Warblers whistle, but Blaine seems happy. Once they’re in the dressing room, Kurt can see the book lying on a chair.

Blaine closes the door. “The music is terrible.”

Kurt laughs. “I wasn’t going to tell you that,” he says.

“Like, there’s great, beautiful, awe-inspiring pop music that completely breaks the barriers of music _and then there’s this_ ,” Blaine rants, “As a music lover, it was an absolute pain in the ass to perform. Can you imagine this many people came to see us for this crap?”

He shakes his head disapprovingly. Then he grabs Kurt and he pushes him against the closed door and he starts kissing him.

Kurt’s a bit taken aback, but he kisses back.

“The others already think we’re making out, so we might as well do so,” Blaine says and Kurt laughs, “It’s been too long.”

They continue kissing, but Kurt also can’t help but think about the book. It’s within their reach.

Blaine pulls back and he frowns. “You’re not into it.”

Kurt slowly shakes his head and the disappointment on Blaine’s face is palpable. “Look, sweetheart, I desperately want to kiss you right now, but I also desperately want to continue our trip. The sooner we get home, the better.”

Blaine’s still disappointed, but he understands.

“The sooner we get home, the sooner we can continue making out.”

That puts an extra bounce in Blaine’s step. He eagerly opens the book to the right page. Kurt can see a line and a star. The star is pretty easy to figure it out: it’s the weirdly shaped concert ticket, but the line confuses Kurt.

“Yeah, I’ve been staring at that line all afternoon,” Blaine says and he sighs, “I gave an awful performance, because instead of learning the lyrics, I was staring at a line.”

“The fans still loved it.”

“Yeah. Weird,” Blaine shrugs, “People in this dimension have a bad taste. I also have to work on my autographs, because people desperately want them. I think I’ll get some bad press now that I am not greeting fans at an instant.”

“Oh, we’ll be gone soon,” Kurt says, “No worries.”

“Wait. Autographs!” Blaine says suddenly.

“Yes, what is with autographs?” Kurt asks.

Blaine walks around the dressing room.

“What are you looking for?” Kurt asks.

“A pen!” Blaine says and just then, he finds a Sharpie.

“What are you doing?” Kurt asks when he watches Blaine scribbling in the book.

“I am signing this stupid book,” Blaine says.

Kurt moves to the book and he watches over Blaine’s shoulder. The autograph doesn’t really disappear into the page, but the line slowly fades away.

“Yes!” Blaine says happily. Kurt immediately searches for his ticket in his pocket and he puts it on the page at well. As expected, it disappears into the page to reappear as an image.

Blaine flips the page and a new word has appeared. Blaine laughs when he reads it.

“What is it?” Kurt asks, but Blaine’s still laughing, so Kurt takes the book out of Blaine’s hands. When Kurt reads the word, he laughs at well.

“What does ‘Pokémon’ even mean?”


	7. Pokémon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am pretty excited for this one. This is the second crossover, and just like the Harry Potter one, you don’t need to know the story of the games, since it’s all about the setting. This chapter is close to 3K words and so are others. I am trying to cut it down, since I also don’t want to exhaust myself, but I just absolutely love introducing the different settings.
> 
> But I will try.

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 7: Gradual  
**

**Dimension five: Pokémon**

* * *

Blaine wakes up because the road is wonky. He is in a passenger’s seat of a van.

“What’s up, sleeping beauty!”

Blaine looks next to him and behind the steering wheel is Cooper. That’s new. He hasn’t seen Cooper in one of these dimensions before.

“Hey,” Blaine says, not knowing what else to say. This is the thing that he hates the most about this dimension hopping. He just gets thrown in the middle of a story. He always needs to figure out who he is and what is going on without raising too much suspicion. He knows that he supposed to be in a Pokémon setting, but what many people don’t realise is that the Pokémon canon and universe are huge!

“Sorry, I dozed off. Where are we exactly?” Blaine asks. That must be a safe question.

“We’re almost there, squirt. We’re on Route 218. You missed the end of the boat trip to Canalave City and the smaller boat trips in Route 218,” Cooper answers excitedly, “Can’t wait till we’re finally in Jubilife. Time to start anew, right?”

“Right, of course,” Blaine says back and he looks out of the window. Blaine knows of Jubilife City. They’re in the Sinnoh region and apparently, they’re moving from another region.

Blaine looks around. There are a couple of stickers on the car windscreen. They’re all Kantonian, so Blaine assumes they’ve moved from the Kanto region. He has no idea why, but unless it’s necessary to find Kurt, he doesn’t care.

He gets his confirmation when he sees two tickets on the dashboard. They’re tickets for a boat from Kanto to Sinnoh. He puts one of them in his bag.

After a short drive, they arrive in Jubilife City. Blaine knows he’s supposed to focus on finding Kurt as soon as possible, but he can’t believe he’s seeing Jubilife City like this. It’s huge! Blaine’s played the Sinnoh games, where they only show a limited pixelized version of the cities.

“Taking in the view?” Cooper says knowingly.

They drive to an apartment building and Cooper parks in front of the building. “Home sweet home.”

* * *

Blaine’s feeling of bliss doesn’t last long. His first instinct is to leave and explore Jubilife in the hopes of finding Kurt, but it wouldn’t make sense to Cooper. After all, this is not Blaine’s own dimension. So instead of exploring, he is stuck in the apartment. He helps Cooper and a Machoke Moving Company with the move.

By the time most of their stuff is in the apartment, it’s gone dark.

“I’m heading out,” Blaine says the moment the Machokes leave.

Coopers face falls. “I thought we were gonna order some takeaway and celebrate us finally leaving our dead-ass parents in Celadon City all the way back in Kanto?”

Blaine sighs. He doesn’t want to waste time, but again, it wouldn’t look right to Cooper. “Right, of course. Sorry, got a bit too excited about finally living here.”

“’S cool, squirt.”

* * *

And that’s how Blaine gets stuck with Cooper for three days. He’s never been in a single dimension this long. He’s stayed in the apocalyptic dimension for almost two days and that felt like a lifetime.

Cooper is overbearing in every dimension.

It’s nice in a way. In Blaine’s dimension, Cooper’s been in LA for too long. They barely spend time together. Here, Cooper is the older brother Blaine had always hoped for. They explore Jubilife together, they go shopping together, they have dinner together. It’s nice, but Blaine still wants to leave.

No dimension is nice enough without Kurt.

After three days, Cooper must’ve realised that Blaine wants to actually leave to see more of Sinnoh.

“As long as you have your phone with you!” Cooper says when Blaine’s getting ready to leave. He has his bag, his phone (he wonders if it works in different dimensions), and a couple of Pokéballs that apparently belong to him.

“I have.”

“Cool, you can take the bike, you know?” Cooper says. He had bought a bike from Eterna City through the internet. Blaine’d never imagined there would be internet in the Pokémon world.

“Thanks. Will you be okay?”

Cooper nods and then grins. “Remember Matilda from next door? Yeah, we kind of have a date. So I’ll be fine.”

Blaine’s eyes widen. “Shut up!”

Cooper nods happily.

“Glad for you, Coop,” Blaine says and he hugs Cooper goodbye, “I’m gonna miss you a lot.”

Cooper frowns lightly. “You’re acting as if we’ll never see each other again, squirt.”

 _I won’t see this version of you anymore, no_ , Blaine thinks, but instead he says: “Don’t ruin the sentiment, Coop.”

Blaine says goodbye and he leaves to roam around Sinnoh. He has no plan and no idea where he’s going. He does buy a map in the Pokémart. Blaine might like Pokémon, but he’s not a die hard fan and he doesn’t know the regions by heart.

He moves to Route 204 heading Floaroma Town so that he can buy some berries. Thanks to his bike, he gets there pretty easily. When he’s in Floaroma Town, he decides to open up his six Pokéballs. He knows from Cooper that he’s not a Pokémon trainer, but that he still has some Pokémon from different regions as friends. Apparently, their dad travels a lot and he brought back some Pokémon. Not for Blaine. Oh no, Blaine just stole them from his dad’s office, because he didn’t trust him to treat Pokémon kindly.

Blaine throws the Pokéballs and they all open. In it are a Banette, a Gengar, a Mismagius, a Shiny Mimikyu, a small Pumpkaboo, and an Alonan Marowak. They are all Ghost-type Pokémon, which surprises Blaine.

Blaine stares at them and they all stare back at him.

“Uhm. Hi,” Blaine waves awkwardly and to his shock, the Pokémon with arms wave back.

All the Pokémon have a curious look on their face. Blaine scratches the back of his head. Why does this feel so awkward? It’s as if they’re evaluating Blaine.

“So, uhm, I know this is a bit weird. I still don’t really know how all this dimension stuff works, but I am assuming you don’t know me. I mean, you do, but you know the version of me who belongs in this dimension. Uhm, I can’t really explain what happened to him, since I don’t know either, so I also can’t promise you he’ll be back after I leave I mean- Jesus, I don’t want my version of this dimension to turn into a Phantump or whatever, but uhm, all you’ve got is me right now.”

Now that Blaine has said it out loud, he can’t help but wonder what does happen to the other versions of himself? After all, to Blaine it feels like he just takes over the lives of those other versions for a day or sometimes longer. But will they return when he and Kurt move on? Is his space version currently battling Santana on the McKinley Air Craft with a confusingly long number? Is his magical self on his way back to Ilvermorny with the others? Did the version of himself in the apocalyptic dimension survive his injuries? Is his famous self currently facing bad press because he disappeared with another guy instead of greeting fans?

Blaine decides it’s a question for later. Right now, he has to talk to his (are they really _his_?) Pokémon.

“Well, I am Blaine. Hi.” He waves again, and some of the Pokémon wave back again, “I am just like your Blaine, but from another dimension. I need to find my fiancé named Kurt and a really weird book. Do you think you can help me out?”

He has no idea how his Pokémon can contribute to the search to Kurt, but the Pokémon all seem to agree.

In fact, Gengar moves to Blaine’s bag that was lying in the grass.

“What is it?” Blaine asks. He takes out all his stuff from his bag, which isn’t much: clothes from the first day, the ticket from the boat, his knife from the apocalypse, the phone from his home dimension, the town map, and the bike keys.

Gengar stands next to the map.

Blaine puts the rest of his stuff back in his bag and he unfolds the map. The other Pokémon move closer as well and Marowak points towards Canalave City.

“What is in Canalave City?” Blaine asks and Marowak does his cry. It sounds cuter in real life, but Blaine can’t understand it. Luckily, there’s a Pokémart in Floaroma Town and Blaine buys a Sinnoh Region Guide Book.

He reads the section about Canalave City. “You want me to go to the Canalave Library?” he asks and his Pokémon all make affirming sounds.

“Well, let’s get going then.”

* * *

Blaine’s sitting in the library with his Pokémon surrounding him. He’s not the only one with his Pokémon outside their Pokéballs, so it’s not weird. All his Pokémon are interested in the books as well, except for Mimikyu, who’s staring longingly at a poster of a Pikachu.

He reads out loud (to the annoyance of some others) about the Sinnoh Myths. “‘…as the Lake Guardians are being observed by many, including Sinnoh’s current Pokémon Champion Gilbert’- hey wait a minute. Where is Cynthia?”

Mismagius makes a noise.

“Oh, of course, sorry. I am in a Pokémon setting, but I am not really in the actual storyline of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl.”

Pumpkaboo also makes a noise.

“Yeah, sorry, I can’t explain it to you, but in my dimension, the Pokémon world is nothing more than a fictional story. There are no Pokémon where I’m from.”

Banette makes a noise as well and she almost sounds offended.

“Sorry, it’s the truth,” Blaine says and he shuts the book closed, “This is not what I am looking for, though. Mimikyu, it’s really nice of you that you’ve given me this book to read, but it’s not the one I’m looking for.”

Mimikyu doesn’t listen. He’s still staring longingly at the Pikachu poster.

Mismagius floats around the library, looking for the next book. They’ve been in the library for a while now and Blaine’s told his Pokémon that he needs a certain book, but now his Pokémon are giving him random books to read.

He’s this close to accepting that the book isn’t in Canalave City when Pumpkaboo floats to another bookshelf. Blaine immediately recognises the book.

“Pumpie, you’re amazing!” he yells out and other library goers shush him.

Blaine takes the book out of the bookshelf and he opens it. As expected, he finds two shapes underneath the word ‘Pokémon’, but Blaine’s mood drops when he sees the shapes. They’re incredibly generic. One is a square and the other one is a rectangle. It could be anything.

Blaine sighs. He turns to his awaiting Pokémon. “Okay, this is not as easy as I want it to be, but let’s just head out and look for Kurt, okay? I am taking the book with me. Maybe Kurt can recognise what we need.”

His Pokémon nod.

They leave the library and it is a pain to take the book with him, since the librarians notice that Blaine’s not a member, but they succeed. Blaine and his Pokémon walk, or for some, float, around Canalave City, pondering what to do next.

Blaine still has no idea where to find Kurt.

Then, a sailor starts to shout and Blaine jumps in shock, almost dropping the book. “Boat incoming! Open the drawbridge!”

It’s a passenger’s ship and people on the dock are waving. It’s quite a sight and Blaine waves back. “This is cool,” he tells his Pokémon. The Pokémon with arms wave as well.

“Blaine!” he hears Kurt yell.

Blaine’s head jerks back towards the ship. Kurt’s standing on the dock of the ship and he’s jumping up and down from excitement.

“Blaine, Blaine, it’s me! I found you!” Kurt waves frantically.

“Kurt!” Blaine yells back, “It is so good to see you!”

* * *

Kurt and Blaine are hugging and kissing and crying. They haven’t seen each other in three days and they’re just so happy to see each other. Marowak is applauding them.

“You would not believe how much I’ve travelled!” Kurt says proudly, “I’ve been on that damn boat for two days. I didn’t even get seasick.”

“So good to see you, love,” Blaine says.

“I’ve got so much to tell you, but I suggest we go somewhere private.”

Blaine looks around and people are watching them. It’s not negative attention, but Blaine would like some privacy right now. All his Pokémon go back into their Pokéballs and Blaine unlocks his bike. They travel back to Route 218 and they find a silent spot between the trees to sit down.

“Okay, so, I wake up in a bedroom and my dad and Carole are in the house, which is crazy. Then, I see a Pikachu on Carole’s shoulder and I remember that I am in the Pokémon world, right?”

Blaine nods.

“So the thing is, I don’t know shit about Pokémon. You play the games, not me. But anyway, I hear my dad telling Carole about this rumour about the Andersons, a rich family from Janto, or something.”

“Kanto,” Blaine corrects him.

“Yes, sure, Kanto,” Kurt rolls his eyes, “So anyway, my dad tells Carole about the Anderson sons, Cooper and Blaine, and that they’ve moved to Sinnoh. I am freaking ecstatic for a while, because I figured out where to find you, till I realise Sinnoh is a completely different region. I didn’t know there were different regions!”

“Wait, you travelled all the way to Sinnoh from another region?” Blaine asks, impressed, “Which one?”

“Oh I don’t know,” Kurt says, “It’s on my ticket, though.” Kurt fishes something out of his pocket. It’s the ticket from the boat.

“You came all the way from Kalos?!” Blaine says, surprised.

“Is that far?” Kurt asks, “I mean, sure, I was on a boat for two days.”

“Well, it’s not the farthest, because that’s Alola, but let’s just say that there are a couple of regions relatively close to each other, namely Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh. And then you’ve got the regions that are farther away, namely Unova, Kalos and Alola. Kurt, you came all the way to Sinnoh to find me without knowing where to find me in Sinnoh!”

Kurt laughs. “Yeah, good thing you happened to be in the city with the port.”

“Yeah.”

“But okay, I have no idea where I am and how to get to this Sinnoh, so I tell dad I’m heading out. I take a bag, some money, and four Pokéballs that are apparently mine. I buy a map and I find out I live in Couriway Town, which has a train station with a train that can take me to a port city, namely Courmarine City, and I blow all my savings on a ticket to Sinnoh. And here I am.”

“So, that train station does have a purpose! It’s useless in the games. Can I meet your Pokémon?”

Blaine knows that he should tell Kurt that he has the book in his bag, but he’s just so excited. Besides, there’s no apparent danger in this dimension. They can afford to just hang out and talk for a while.

Kurt blushes. “I honestly have no idea what they’re called, since I only know of Pikachu and Bulbasaur, so I just called them Susan, Erik, Ritchie and Lily. Don’t ask me about the names!”

Kurt takes the Pokéballs out of his bag and he opens them. “This is Susan,” he says and Blaine laughs when a Gardevoir appears. The name Susan suits her.

Then, a blue Flabébé appears. “Erik.”

Then, a Vulpix. “Lily.”

And last, to Blaine’s surprise, an Alolan Ninetails. “And Ritchie.”

“Gardevoir, Flabébé, Vulpix and Ninetails,” Blaine tells Kurt and Kurt’s Pokémon nod. Flabébé flies around Kurt’s head and Vulpix jumps on him.

“They’ve been excellent company these past two days,” Kurt says.

Blaine also introduces his Pokémon to Kurt, and Kurt thinks they’re kind of scary, but they’re Ghost Pokémon, so Blaine understands.

They sit between the trees and they feed berries to the Pokémon. They talk and Blaine tells Kurt what he’s seen in the past three days. He tells him of the beautiful flowers in Floaroma Town and the amazing atmosphere of Jubilife City. He tells him about Cooper.

They lie on the grass together, looking at the sky, while their Pokémon play together. They almost forget they’re supposed to move on.

It’s starting to get dark and Kurt says: “We need to find the book.”

Blaine sighs. He doesn’t want to leave.

“I’ve, uh, I’ve had the book with me all this time,” he admits.

Kurt raises an eyebrow.

“That’s why I was in Canalave City, the port city. It has a library.”

“And you didn’t think it’d be a great idea to tell me?” Kurt asks indignantly. 

Blaine turns red. “Sorry, I forgot about it.”

“ _You forgot about it?_ ”

“Look, when’s the last time we spent time together?” Blaine says back, “The last few days have been hectic with all this dimension hopping, and even before that in our own dimension, we barely saw each other. Really, Kurt, when’s the last time we spent more than two hours together? We have school and work. I missed you! I’ve missed you these past few weeks, Kurt!”

Kurt’s face softens. “I’ve missed you too, sweetheart.”

Blaine takes Kurt’s hand. “Please, forgive me for forgetting, but I haven’t felt this peaceful in weeks. I haven’t been able to just be with you like this in a very long time.”

And one day, they’ll make it back home, and it will all be over.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to get annoyed,” Kurt says, “I get it. I’ve missed you too, but I think it’s time to continue. We have to gradually continue travelling through these dimensions.”

Blaine knows he’s right and he nods sadly. He takes the book out of his bag and he opens it to the right page. Kurt frowns when he sees the generic shapes.

“Yeah, I’ve got no idea,” Blaine says.

“This is going to be difficult.”

“We at least have a place to stay if needed,” Blaine says, “This road leads to Jubilife. It’d be awkward explaining to Cooper why I let a guy stay over after one day of knowing him, but I’ll take it.”

Kurt shakes his head. “This is getting us nowhere.”

“Then maybe we should head back to Jubilife before it gets dark,” Blaine suggests.

Kurt nods and he starts gathering his stuff. It’s lying everywhere.

Blaine does the same.

But when Kurt picks up his ticket from the boat to Sinnoh, a gust of wind blows it out of his grip.

“Hey!” Kurt tries to catch it. He’s not the guy who wants to litter in a forest. The ticket lands on the page of the open book and both Kurt and Blaine are in shock when it disappears into the page. The square is gone and the ticket appears as an image.

“Oh my God,” Blaine says and then he remembers that his ticket is still somewhere in his bag. He finds it and he smiles widely when he sees it’s a rectangle shaped ticket. He shows it to Kurt. “This is my ticket from Kanto to Sinnoh. I’ve had it with me all along, I just never knew the book needed it.”

“Yes!” Kurt says.

Blaine’s about to put the ticket on the page, but then he sees his Pokémon watching him. He stops himself from putting the ticket on the page and he turns to his Pokémon instead. He motions to them to come closer.

“So, I guess this is goodbye,” he says sadly. He can’t believe how attached he’s grown to these six creatures.

Mimikyu sounds confused.

“As I told you, I am not your Blaine. I just filled in for him,” Blaine says as he pets all of his Pokémon on their head, “It’s time for me to leave.”

Gengar shakes his head and Mismagius sounds sad. Marowak hangs his head.

“I really hope that your Blaine returns to you quickly. I’ve got no idea. It’s been a wonderful day and I will miss all of you.”

Pumpkaboo has no arms, but it flies against Blaine, so Blaine sees that as hugging. Banette makes a distressed sound.

“It’s okay,” Blaine says and he looks to Kurt, who’s baffled, “I have him.”

Banette nods.

“Give Cooper some love from me, okay?” Blaine asks and his Pokémon nods. Then he puts them back in their Pokéballs one by one. He pets every one of them.

“Susan, Ritchie, Lily, Erik!” Blaine hears and he sees that Kurt’s saying goodbye as well. Then, Kurt’s Pokémon disappear into their respective Pokéballs. It’s time to leave.

They put all their Pokéballs on the ground, together with the bike. Kurt’s keeping the bag, if possible.

Blaine puts his ticket on the page and it disappears into it. It later reappears as an image and a new word starts forming on the next page.

“Supernatural,” Kurt reads out loud.

“Oh, I hope it isn’t referring to the TV show,” Blaine sighs and he watches the word grow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you’re not familiar with Pokémon, [here is a post with their Pokémon teams](http://forabeatofadrum.tumblr.com/post/180899167098/kurt-and-blaines-pok%C3%A9mon-from-chapter-six-of-all).


	8. Supernatural

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact, I invented the Machoke Moving Company from the previous chapter, [or so I thought.](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Ftime_continue%3D34%26v%3Dj1qu50-xnuc&t=MTJkNmNiM2QxNWNkNWQ4MDQ2Y2I0NWVjNzZmMjcyMzQ5NjlhMmE4YyxLb2xkRnZhRw%3D%3D&b=t%3A1_FbMVvKlyXyfeQlKE-AmQ&p=http%3A%2F%2Fforabeatofadrum.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F180922108318%2Fall-the-pretty-things-that-we-could-be-824&m=0)

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 8: House  
**

**Dimension six: Supernatural**

* * *

Kurt did not keep the bag.

That’s the first thing he noticed when he woke up.

It’s kind of a shame, because it’d be nice to have a bag to keep all his stuff. Blaine has his bag and that bag, including everything in it, gets transported with him from dimension to dimension. It’s probably because that bag belongs to their actual dimension, but Kurt’s bag belongs to the Pokémon dimension.

It doesn’t really explain why everything inside gets transported as well. After all, Blaine still had the knife from the apocalypse in it, but Kurt’s also too tired to figure it out. Everything about this dimension hopping is crazy. Sometimes Kurt still thinks he’s dreaming.

Kurt looks around and he’s once again in the loft. He can’t hear anyone else, so he just gets dressed and he decides to have breakfast. Then he’ll look for Blaine. He draws the curtains of his bedroom and he does a double take when he sees the book lying on the coffee table.

 _No,_ Kurt thinks, _It can’t be this easy. Nothing’s ever been this easy!_

His thoughts of breakfast disappear and he hurries to the living room. He opens the book and he browses to the right page and Kurt can’t believe it when he sees ‘Pokémon’ on one page with the images of the boat tickets underneath is and ‘Supernatural’ on the other. As expected, there are two shapes underneath the word.

This is the weird book, and it’s already here. He’s never found it this quickly before. He found it on the air craft after walking around for a while, he found it in the library of Hogwarts after going in the Restricted Section and he found it in the hospital wing after a whole day.

It can’t be this easy.

Kurt grabs the book, a bag, and his shoes and he goes downstairs. Breakfast be damned. If necessary, he eats a bagel in the city. He has to figure out where he is and he has to find Blaine.

He walks around the streets of New York, and even though there’s nothing out of the ordinary, something feels wrong. It’s a sunny day and Kurt knows that his pale skin doesn’t like the harsh sunlight, but it almost feels like he’s burning. Not only that, but Kurt keeps smelling all kind of weird scents around him and it is incredibly overwhelming, it almost makes him faint.

Also, his hunger grows. Maybe he shouldn’t have skipped breakfast. Kurt smells a lot of different scents, but he also smells the scent of cinnamon and fresh wood and a certain cologne. Kurt had no idea you could smell wood, but it’s amazing. It unfortunately only makes his hunger grow.

He’s in pain. It’s too much. He’s not even one block away and he decides to go back to the loft.

When he’s home, he feels so unwell, he decides to go to the bathroom. He washes his face and when he decides to look at himself in the mirror, there’s no reflection.

 _What the_ -

“Where have you been?”

Kurt jumps in shock. Santana is standing next to him. Where did she come from?

“Out, I just-”

“Out?” Santana asks, “Are you crazy? The sunlight is harsh today, Hummel. You burn before these humans could burn you at the stake.”

Santana scoffs and she turns around to leave.

“I’m incredibly hungry,” Kurt says.

“Blood’s in the fridge,” Santana says back.

_Blood?_

Kurt looks at his lack of reflection. Then it hits him. The sunlight is painful, he smells a lot of scents, he doesn’t have a reflection, and he’s craving for something. He’s not craving for bagels, he’s craving for food.

“I am a vampire?” Kurt yells out in shock and he hears Santana laugh from the living room.

“You sure are, Hummel,” she says, “Aren’t we all? Anyway, you heading out tonight? Some of us are going to Gilbert’s this night.”

Kurt doesn’t answer. He’s horrified. That’s where all these scents came from. He was smelling people. That’s also why those scents increased his hunger. He wanted to drain them.

At the thought of draining people, Kurt feels a sudden want.

Kurt shakes his head. This isn’t really him. He can’t think about sucking blood out of innocent people. But he is so hungry. No, he’s thirsty.

There’s blood in the fridge, so Kurt raids it. There are literal gallons of blood in the fridge and Kurt doesn’t even have time to question where the blood comes from, because he is just so thirsty.

Santana’s eye roll is audible. Kurt had no idea eye rolls were audible, but vampires must have super senses, not only can he smell amazingly, he can see and hear more than ever.

“This is why I barely go outside, Hummel,” she says, “All those bags of flesh are just around you. What were you thinking when you decided to walk around New York? I just teleport.”

Holy shit, he can probably teleport as well. He finishes his drink and there’s blood over him, but he doesn’t care.

The scent of cinnamon, wood and cologne still overwhelms him, but there’s no one there except for Santana. He sniffs in Santana’s direction, and he smells nothing. Maybe it’s because she’s another vampire.

Santana sniffs as well. “There’s someone here.”

Then, someone knocks on the door. Santana’s eyes turn demonic and her fangs appear. Kurt tries not to scream when he sees it, because Santana looks more terrifying than ever.

The door slides open and Blaine is standing in the hallway. “Kurt?”

“Blaine?” Kurt says and he basically jumps on Blaine. The scent of cinnamon, wood and cologne is stronger than ever. He’s smelled Blaine outside without knowing.

Kurt looks at Blaine and he sees some reddish glow in Blaine’s eyes.

“No offense, but what are you?” Santana asks before Kurt can ask. She’s still got her fangs out, but her eyes are back to normal.

“Uh, apparently I am a werewolf,” Blaine says.

Santana looks from Kurt to Blaine and back. “And you two know each other?”

“Yes, Santana,” Kurt says.

“Okay, cool,” she says, “By the way, I’m about to head out. I’ll be here at midnight, okay? I mean, you’re coming with us to Gilbert’s, right?”

“Sure,” Kurt says, not knowing if he’ll still be here at midnight.

“Cool,” Santana says again and then to their surprise, she disappears.

“Okay, what the fuck,” Blaine says, “What the hell is she?”

“We’re vampires,” Kurt says, “What happened to you? I woke up with a weird thirst for blood and without a reflection in the mirror.”

“I woke up and I was surrounded by Warblers,” Blaine says, “Turns out we’re a pack of werewolves. It wasn’t difficult to figure it out, because they have stuff about werewolves littered in Wes’s apartment. Also, I could smell a lot, like, woah. That’s how I found you. You smell like Kurt.”

“But Santana has no scent?” Kurt asks, puzzled, “I don’t think vampires can be smelled.”

Blaine taps his nose. “Werewolf nose, Kurt. You think vampires can smell a lot, well us werewolves are experts. So I followed your scent and I found you. I’ve never found you this quick before. This house smells like vampires.”

That reminds Kurt of the book. “Speaking of finding things…” he nods towards the coffee table and Blaine’s jaw drops when he sees the book.

“No way, this is too easy!” he says, but Kurt shakes his head.

“Maybe not, because I can’t figure out what the book wants,” Kurt says. This time, the shapes aren’t as generic as in the Pokémon dimension. On the contrary, the shapes are very detailed, but Kurt just doesn’t recognise them.

“Then let’s figure out,” Blaine says and he tugs Kurt towards the door.

Kurt stops him with his super strength and Blaine almost falls to the floor.

“Sorry!” Kurt says, “Didn’t mean to pull you back like that, but I can’t leave. I burn in the sun. I know I am able to teleport, just like Santana, but I don’t know how. We’re stuck here till the sun goes down.”

“Oh, okay.”

“You can also investigate on your own,” Kurt suggests but Blaine shakes his head.

“No way, I am not leaving you.”

“Then what do we do? We can’t sit down till midnight,” Kurt points out.

Blaine looks around as if he’s figuring something out. Then a grin starts spreading over his face.

“What are you thinking?” Kurt asks.

Blaine’s still grinning and he says: “So, you can’t leave the house, and no one is in here?”

Kurt sniffs the air. There’s no human being and Kurt trusts Blaine when he says that he can’t smell any vampires. “I guess.”

“Kurt, you smell really good,” Blaine says and he takes a step closer, “Like, really, really good. Like it’s starting to drive me crazy, now that only you are near to me.”

Kurt knows where he’s hinting at.

“Bed. Now.”

* * *

It’s slowly becoming dark. The sun is starting to set.

He’s cooking dinner for Blaine only, since Kurt can’t eat regular food. Blaine’s looking at the two shapes in the book.

“Still nothing?” Kurt asks and he can hear (hear!) Blaine shaking his head.

“No,” Blaine sighs sadly, “These shapes are not only weirdly detailed, but they’re also very uncommon. I mean, look at all these turns and twists. I haven’t got the faintest idea what these are supposed to be.”

Blaine decides to leave the book for now and he sets the table and he takes a gallon of blood out of the fridge for Kurt. He’s very calm about the whole blood drinking thing, but then again, Blaine just got turned into a werewolf.

They have dinner and they discuss their options, but it’s clear that they’re at a dead end. Now, no one is actively trying to kill them in this dimension, and they once again got to spent a lot of time together, but they’re eager to move on. They don’t want to stay the night if not necessary.

But they can’t deny that they have nowhere to go, except for this Gilbert’s Santana has been talking about.

* * *

Brittany and Santana both teleport into the loft and Santana raises an eyebrow when she sees that Blaine’s still there. Then she grins.

“Oh Hummel, I can smell him all over you,” she says.

Kurt refuses to be embarrassed.

Blaine says back: “Yes, you can speak, Santana. I can smell you all over her.”

Santana’s eyes widen and Kurt laughs at the expression.

“But- how-”

“Apparently vampires have scents as well and werewolves can smell them,” Kurt says.

“That’s cool,” Brittany says, “So you’re like a puppy?”

“Let’s just go,” Santana says and Kurt takes her arm. She looks confused. “What are you doing?”

“Need some extra support to teleport Blaine with us,” Kurt lies easily and he takes Kurt’s hand. The truth is that he has no idea where this Gilbert’s is.

Santana buys the lie. “Ah, you’ve become weak.”

Kurt rolls his eyes. Santana then transports the four of them and Kurt feels dizzy. He’s not used to this kind of travel.

They’re now in a bar and scent overwhelms Kurt. Other New Directions members are there as well and they are all vampires. Some even have their demonic eyes and fangs out.

“Puppy boy,” Santana addresses Blaine, “You got a pack?”

“Yes, Dalton. I’m the alpha,” Blaine says proudly.

“Will they be here as well?” Brittany asks, “The more puppies, the merrier!”

Santana laughs nervously. “Excuse my girlfriend, we’ve never met a werewolf before. Your kind usually stays in the dark. I’ve never even seen a werewolf at Gilbert’s before.”

“Puppy is fine,” Blaine says. While Blaine talks with Brittany and Santana, Kurt looks around and he talks with some others. There are all kind of supernatural species here. Kurt can see fairies, other vampires, trolls, goblins and even centaurs.

After talking a while, Kurt realises Gilbert’s is a bar owned by someone named Gilbert, who is an actual God. He created a safe space for supernatural species where they can just be themselves, since humans are still very wary of them.

Kurt likes it. He feels safe here.

Blaine joins the conversation and they have a good time, they almost forget they’re still looking for the two objects for the book. That is until they move to the bar to talk to Tina and in the corner of Kurt’s eye, he can see both objects: they’re dark, stone wall ornaments.

“Tina, may we be excused?” Kurt asks and he doesn’t wait for an answer. He drags Blaine to a quiet corner.

“That was rude, love.”

“I know, but look at that!” Kurt nods towards the wall ornaments.

Realisation dawns upon Blaine. “That’s the-”

Kurt nods eagerly.

“How do we get a hold of those?”

The wall ornaments are hung on a wall that’s quite empty. Most bar-goers are at the bar or they’re hanging around the dancefloor. Kurt knows he has superspeed as a vampire. He hasn’t used it, but he can try. He hasn’t used his abilities much, but there’s a first time for everything.

“You distract the others,” Kurt tells Blaine.

“How?”

“I don’t know? Sing? I don’t know what else to do, I’ve never been to an underground supernatural bar before.”

“Well, I guess I can do that,” Blaine looks around and he sees the bar. He gets an excited look on his face. “Time to put on a show.”

Kurt tries not to laugh when Blaine climbs on the bar and he starts singing Baby Got Back. All the other bar-goers immediately look at him. Some laugh, some sing and dance along, but most of them look gobsmacked. But most importantly: no one’s paying attention to Kurt.

He moves towards the wall ornaments and he slowly and carefully takes them from the wall. In the background, Blaine’s switched to Hit Me Baby One More Time.

Unfortunately for Kurt, the wall ornaments must’ve been on that wall for a reason, because the wall slowly starts to crack. Dark blue light appears out of the cracks.

“Uh oh.”

Blaine’s still performing on the bar, but some have obviously noticed the cracks.

“Hey, what are you doing?” a troll yells angrily.

“Uh oh,” Kurt says again, “Time to get out of here.”

Kurt focuses on wanting to run fast and he takes a deep breath. Then he starts running and he drags Blaine from the bar. Together, they’re running fast through the streets of New York.

“Come back you!” they hear.

Blaine looks around. “Kurt, an angry troll and an equally angry pixie are following us! I suggest we teleport back to the loft.”

Kurt focuses on wanting to teleport and then he focuses on the loft. He holds Blaine tight. “Now!”

The teleport to the loft and Blaine immediately takes the wall ornaments from Kurt and he puts them on the page. As expected, they disappear in it and they reappear as images. He flips the page and two new words have appeared.

“I hope this ‘private detectives’ dimension starts fast before those guys find us.”

“We just stole something!” Kurt says.

Blaine sniffs. “They’re close, I can smell them. Surprisingly, the pixie stinks and the troll smells like fresh flowers and tea leaves.”

“Book, hurry up!”

Luckily, the words start to grow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vampire!Kurt and werewolf!Blaine is a reference to [the Wax verse](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Farchiveofourown.org%2Fseries%2F217913&t=MDQxYWQ5NGRiYTQxNDU2MzA4MzQxZWFmOTYyMGViNzEyNWM4NDNkYyxLb2xkRnZhRw%3D%3D&b=t%3A1_FbMVvKlyXyfeQlKE-AmQ&p=http%3A%2F%2Fforabeatofadrum.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F180922108318%2Fall-the-pretty-things-that-we-could-be-824&m=0) by skivvysupreme.


	9. Private detectives

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _**Me:** I’m going to cut down these chapters._
> 
> _**Also me:** *still writes 2K+ words*_
> 
> This AU was suggested by my friend Verena, who has been kind enough to suggest a couple of AUs for this story. 
> 
> I am still looking for two more AUs/dimensions and I am open for suggestions!

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 9: Incident  
**

**Dimension seven: Private detectives**

* * *

There’s no colour. Blaine looks around and everything is in black and white. He woke up in a small bedroom with only a bed, a desk and a closet in it and the lack of colour freaks Blaine out.

Then he opens the closet and the colour is no longer the most shocking thing. His closet is filled with fedoras. For the first time since the apocalypse, Blaine’s glad Kurt’s not here. The rest of his wardrobe is quite snazzy, if Blaine may say so.

He gets dressed and he puts on a long coat and unfortunately, also a fedora. He grabs his bag and he leaves. Time to figure out where he is.

“Ah, you’re up. Time for another day, right?” Blaine hears. David is standing behind him. David’s dress style is similar to Blaine’s and he has a really weird accent. He sounds like those radio narrators on The Legend of Korra, those old school ones.

Suddenly it all makes sense.

Everything’s black and white, people speak like characters from old TV, Blaine’s wearing a fedora… he must be in one of those old private detective movies, a real noir film.

“We gotta find Gilbert, Blaine, cause if we don’t, then his wife might suspect us as well,” David sighs, “Now, we can’t have that, can we?”

“Of course not.”

But Blaine is not going to find that missing person. He’s going to find Kurt.

* * *

Blaine’s always imagined that being a private detective would be hard, and he’s right, but being a private detective in a time before the internet existed makes it all worse. He has no idea how to be a detective, but a part of him wants to start his search on the internet.

But there’s no internet.

Blaine’s phone is in his bag, more useless than ever.

He’s luckily a part of a team of detectives working on this case, so him messing up work goes unnoticed (for now). Of course, the others are all Warblers. No matter what dimension he’s in, the Warblers are with him and the New Directions are with Kurt.

Unfortunately, being part of a team also makes it quite difficult to search for Kurt. The others would notice if he suddenly starts searching for another person, so instead of looking for Kurt, he decides on working on his detective skills for now. The Blaine from this dimension is a well-known private detective, but Blaine is not. Blaine had kind of hoped he’s ‘inherit’ the skills from the other versions, because it’d make dimension hopping a lot easier.

Wes and Jeff are in the middle of a discussion when they all hear a knock on the door.

Cautiously, Nick opens it.

An angry looking Rachel Berry is standing in the doorway.

“Detective Berry,” Nick says, “I’d like to say it’s swell to see you, but we both know I don’t like lying.”

The other Warblers laugh. Usually, David would call it a ‘sick burn’, but they’re not in the 2010s.

“We need to talk, Mr. Duvall,” she pushes Nick aside and she enters the office. She greets everyone with a cold nod. “Mr. Sterling, Mr. Thompson, Mr. Montgomery, Mr. Nixon.” Then she turns to Blaine and her face becomes even graver. “And Mr. Anderson.”

“Hello Ra- Ms. Berry,” Blaine says.

“To what do we owe this displeasure?” Trent asks.

“You fellas fine well know why I am here,” Rachel says shortly.

“Yes, and you obviously know our answer, Ms. Berry,” Wes says, “It is still a no.”

“You give nothing about integrity!” Rachel suddenly starts yelling. It sounds kind of funny with this old accent, but Blaine doesn’t want to give her an impression that he’s laughing at her, even though he’s supposed to despise her in this dimension. “All you care about is publicity. At this rate, my team wouldn’t be surprised if _you_ are the ones behind Gilbert’s disappearance, so that you could save the day and be heroes!”

“How dare you!” Trent slams his fists on the table and it rattles the typewriter.

“How can we be sure that the McKinley team isn’t behind Gilbert’s disappearance?” Jeff challenges her.

McKinley team. Kurt must be there somewhere.

“Because we are not power hungry idiots,” Rachel says back, “Again, I won’t be surprised if you are behind this incident.”

Blaine has a plan. He has to meet the others of the McKinley team. He stands up and it has the desired effect: everyone turns to him. “Let’s settle this, fellas,” Blaine says, “How about I join Ms. Berry to the McKinley office so that we can figure it out.”

“That’s spying!” Rachel claims and Blaine finds it ironic that he’s seen as a spy on McKinley, since Kurt was a spy on Dalton when they first met.

“Ms. Berry, I will not copy any of your hard work. You have my word.”

Rachel narrows her eyes, but she must be looking for answers about this rivalry as well, so she says: “Fine.”

* * *

Old New York is beautiful. He can’t let it show, because it would make Rachel suspicious, but it’s very hard too hide the amazement. Blaine only wishes he could see it in colour.

That, and he wishes that all these New Yorkers would stop smoking in his face, but it’s a sign of the times.

They enter a building and Blaine follows Rachel to the third floor. “Here it is,” she says and she stops Blaine from entering the office, “One wrong or suspicious word, and you’re out.”

“Of course, Ms. Berry.”

It’s clear that from all the Warblers, Rachel likes him the least, but she lets him enter the office. His appearance shocks some others.

“Calm down, I can explain!” Rachel yells, “I am here to finally unravel the other mystery: are the Dalton private detectives stealing our cases? In order to figure out, I have brought Mr. Anderson with me.”

“Hello,” Blaine takes off his hat. His eyes scan the room, and as expected, Kurt’s sitting behind a desk in the back. He’s not even trying to hide his excitement.

“And how will we do that, Rachel?” Sam asks.

“I have an idea!” Kurt yells, “But I will have to speak to Bl- Mr. Anderson in person.”

The other New Directions members exchange some worried glares, and Blaine has a strange feeling of déjà vu. It’s as if he’s back on the McKinley Air Craft with a confusingly long number. That feels like ages ago.

Mercedes is the one who breaks the silence. “I trust Kurt.”

“We all do,” Brittany reassures her, “But I do not trust Mr. Anderson.”

Kurt stands up. “I can handle myself.”

“Again, I trust Kurt,” Mercedes says, “I trust him to cut of Mr. Anderson’s balls if necessary.”

The others laugh. Santana waves her hand. “Fine.”

* * *

Kurt takes Blaine to another floor. It’s some kind of archive.

“Blaine, I don’t ever want to see you wearing a fedora again,” he says and the two of them laugh.

“I am so glad I found you this early in the day,” Blaine says, “I was racking my brain, trying to figure out how to use my apparent detective skills, when suddenly Rachel barges into our office.”

“Now, we only need to find the book, and I think this archive could help us,” Kurt says and he turns on the light. The archive is huge. There are stacks of papers and there are folders with even more papers in them. There are rows and rows of metallic dressers all ordered in alphabetical order. “I think the book must be hidden here. I was looking for the right time to walk out of the office, but then you and Rachel arrived.”

Blaine whistles. “This is going to take days, if not weeks.”

“We can’t stay too long or the others will come to look for us,” Kurt points out.

“Is there some kind of Restricted Section, like in the Harry Potter setting? The book was practically waiting for us,” Blaine asks.

Kurt shakes his head. “I have no idea. I’ve never been here before. I only knew of it because Mike mentioned it several times.”

“Maybe ask Mike?”

“Yeah, what do I ask Mike. ‘Hey Mike, have you seen a magical book lying around?’ I don’t think that will work.”

Blaine looks around again and the archive is just massive. The two of them will never be able to go through all of this in a short time. He tells Kurt that.

Kurt looks lost in thought.

“What?” Blaine asks.

Kurt starts to smile. “You’re right. The two of us will never be able to go through all of this, but we do have The New Directions downstairs.”

“How will we convince them to help us look for a magical book?”

Kurt’s smile widens.

* * *

Blaine’s hidden in the hallway that leads to the archive. As expected, he hears Kurt yell.

“He took something from the archive, guys, quick!” he yells. Then, Blaine can hear a lot of footsteps approaching.

“I knew it!” Rachel spits out, “Mr. Anderson cannot be trusted! All those Dalton private detectives are scumbags.”

“What do we do?” Mike asks.

“I don’t know exactly what he stole,” Kurt lies, “It happened all so fast. I suggest we all skim through the archive to see what is missing.”

“Kurt, that is a long shot,” Puck says.

“What choice do we have, Puckerman?” Rachel says, clearly annoyed.

“Come on guys, we know these archives by heart,” Mercedes says, “We can find a missing file easily.”

Blaine watches all the New Directions enter the archive. Kurt’s the last and he winks to Blaine. The others were too caught up, they didn’t even notice Blaine’s (quite terrible) hiding place. Blaine slowly comes out of hiding and he goes to the bathroom. There, he takes a mirror from the wall. He wants to thank whoever created this dimension of naturally hanging mirrors on the wall, not gluing them against it.

Back in the corridor, he uses the mirror so that he can see what’s happening in the archive. It’s a chaos. All the New Directions members are going through the many stacks and metallic dressers. Kurt’s looking as well.

Blaine really hopes this works. As Puck put it, it is a long shot.

After half an hour of waiting, Blaine sees that Brittany is holding the book. He takes the phone out of his bag. It isn’t useless after all, because Blaine uses it to play his ringtone. In 2014, everyone recognizes the most-used ringtones, but in this time period, only Kurt does. It’s a sign that someone has the book.

“Hey Brittany, can you give me the book?” Blaine hears Kurt. In the reflection he can see that Brittany hands it over without question. They all trust each other here. “Thanks.”

“Kurt, where are you going?” Tina asks.

“I’m going to see if Mr. Anderson is still in the building. You never know.” It technically isn’t a lie.

In the reflection, Tina looks a bit skeptical, but she let’s Kurt go.

Kurt and Blaine return the mirror to the bathroom and they open the book. There are two shapes and Blaine tries not to laugh when he sees that one is shaped like a fedora. “Can’t get rid of this.”

The fedora is bigger than the shape, but Blaine puts it on the page anyway. It shrinks before it disappears.

Kurt’s looking at the shape of his object. “Are you kidding me?”

“You recognise it?”

“Yeah,” Kurt doesn’t elaborate. Instead he motions for Blaine to follow him. They move to the office on the third floor. Kurt goes to his desk and he rummages through some of the drawers. He holds up an expensive looking pen. “Good thing I used it this morning, otherwise I wouldn’t have known this pen.”

“Quick, put it on the page before the others go looking for you,” Blaine says.

“Yeah, yeah…”

Kurt puts the pen on the page. It really is a beautiful pen. It also disappears into the page. By now they know the drill, so they’re not surprised by the new word.

“Artist,” Blaine reads out loud, “That sounds fun.”


	10. Artist

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am I going to dedicate the chapter about the artist dimension to Reed van Kamp?
> 
> Yes.
> 
> This is for Reed van Kamp.

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 10: Joke  
**

**Dimension eight: Artist**

* * *

Kurt gets woken by the sound of people yelling.

_Ah, New York, New York, what a wonderful town._

Kurt opens his eyes and he expects to see the curtains of his room in the loft, but instead, he sees an actual wall. This is not his bedroom.

Or maybe it is, because the design is impeccable and his taste. Kurt guesses this is his room in this dimension. He gets out of bed and he looks out of the window. He is in New York, but the view is amazing. This is not Bushwick.

He leaves the bedroom and he sees a small, but wonderful and quite luxurious studio. The light is amazing thanks to the big windows and the high ceilings. One side of the studio is liveable, with a small kitchen, a dining table with a couple of chairs, and a living room. The other side of the studio is filled with huge canvases and paint supplies.

Kurt is an artist, and a successful one. After all, what kind of artist can afford to live in this?

He’s baffled when he sees the canvases. Not to brag, but they are beautiful. (Is it even bragging, because technically, Kurt is not the one who painted them?)

There are layers and layers of differently coloured paint. It’s a mix of abstract art and surrealism, and maybe a hint of post-modernism. Kurt’s so glad he took that art class at NYADA, because if he has to be an artist for this dimension, then he cannot blow his cover.

The thick layers of paint are almost inviting in a way and Kurt reaches out to touch it- only to have his finger covered in thick paint. Kurt curses himself. The paint on the canvases are drying!

Kurt immediately takes a step back and he inspects the damage. There’s a small fingerprint in one of the paintings now and Kurt hopes that his version from this dimension will forgive him when he gets back. If he gets back.

Kurt tries not to think about the other versions of him, because it would mess with his mind, but sometimes he does wonder if him being in these different dimensions has any impact on the dimensions. This is one of those times where he can’t help but feel bad for the Kurt of this dimension, because suddenly, this other guy takes over his life.

A phone starts ringing, so Kurt doesn’t have the time to dwell on it.

It’s Quinn.

“Hello?” Kurt says.

“Oh God, you’re awake,” Quinn sounds stressed, “Kurt, where the hell are you?”

“I- uh, I just woke up.”

“You just woke up?!” Quinn yells, “Kurt, did you oversleep? Your exhibition at Gilbert’s Art Studio starts in two hours and we still have to set things up. You better get your ass over here fast before Santana decides to drag you out of your home.”

“And I will!” Kurt hears Santana.

“Shit, uh, I will be right there!” Kurt says back.

“Are you okay?” Quinn asks.

Kurt nods, but then he realises Quinn can’t see him, so he says: “Yes, don’t worry.”

It is silent for a while, but then Quinn says: “I always do.”

* * *

After a quick Google search, Kurt hopped on the train that would take him to Gilbert’s Art Studio. His quick Google search gave him the information he needs: Kurt is a hot and upcoming artist who specialises in oil and acrylic paint. Gilbert’s Art Studio is a mix between an exhibition hall and an art shop, and it hosts high profile artists.

Kurt is one of those.

He’s incredibly nervous. Kurt does know some things about art. After all, he took that class, but he is not an artist, and now he has to go to his own exhibition where people will ask him questions about his own art. Is this some kind of joke?

Great.

He gets off the train and it’s a short walk to Gilbert’s Art Studio. Brittany is waiting outside.

“There you are!” she ushers him inside, “We’ve already started with the finishing touches. After all, it’s all been set up. Are you ready?”

Kurt looks around in awe. Did he, or a version of him, make all of this? There are flyers lying around and Kurt picks one up. His exhibition is about loneliness of adolescents.

Kurt decides to look closer and he feels a pang of sadness when he sees how much his paintings radiate sadness and loneliness. Art comes from somewhere and Kurt suddenly feels really sorry for the Kurt of this dimension.

Santana slaps him on the shoulder. “Hey, we might need some washi tape. Are you willing to walk 16 whole feet to the art store part of the building to buy some washi tape?”

Kurt nods and he walks the 16 whole feet to the art store part. The art store is huge, and the woman behind the counter knows Kurt’s name. Kurt can’t ask her where to find the washi tape, because that would look weird. After all, Kurt’s supposed to know this shop.

So Kurt starts walking around. There are a lot of art supplies for all sort of art: calligraphy, painting, drawing, sculpting, and many more. There’s also a section of the store filled with books on art history and ‘how-to-draw’ books for beginners. Maybe he should buy one of those when he gets back home in his dimension. He does love art.

He finally finds the washi tape and he buys a couple of rolls. He goes back to his exhibition and he hands them over to Santana.

“I only need one,” she says, so she returns the other three rolls to Kurt.

“Are you ready?” Quinn asks Kurt.

Kurt nods. He hopes Quinn believes him.

* * *

The exhibition is a success. It’s opening night and it’s crowded. The New Directions are also there. Some even flew to New York for this. His dad and Carole flew in as well. Kurt’s missed them, since they haven’t seen each other since the Pokémon dimension, and even though they aren’t really _his_ parents, it’s nice to see them.

Kurt’s surprised by how much he enjoys it. Sure, him giving a speech was a bit awkward, since he absolutely knows nothing of the progression of these artworks, but Kurt’s an actor and improvisation is his friends. Besides, artists are a bit weird, so the crowd buys Kurt’s weirdness.

The only downside is that he can’t go and look for Blaine. Blaine isn’t in the crowd.

He gets home after midnight and he promises himself to go looking for Blaine the day after.

* * *

Kurt has no leads.

After all, New York is huge and this time he can’t rely on supernatural skills to find Blaine. In this dimension, Kurt’s just an ordinary human being. He doesn’t even know if Blaine’s in New York.

He can feel the stress building. He’s had to spend the night in this dimension and he doesn’t like it. He still wants to go home as soon as possible.

In order to distract himself, he goes to his own exhibition. He knows that sometimes artists just mindlessly stare at their own work when they need distraction. When he arrives at Gilbert’s Art Studio, he decides to make a detour. He now has time to check out the art tutorial books. He writes down the titles on a notepad. He can put the notepad in Blaine’s bag so that they make it home.

He’s walking through the aisles when he sees the one book is not like the others.

It’s the book from the antique shop. Kurt doesn’t hesitate. He takes it with him to the counter to buy it. Unfortunately, the price is steep, but Kurt doesn’t care. Besides, in this dimension, he has enough money. Hopefully, the Kurt from this dimension will forgive him.

Kurt takes the book with him to his exhibition. He feels some sense of pride when he sees that there are people admiring the art. Is it weird that he’s proud of a version of himself?

He opens the book and he smiles when he sees one of the shapes: the washi tape. That’s still in his luxurious apartment. The other shape is very easy: it’s a pencil. He’s learned from the time in the private detective dimension that a specific pencil is needed, but he hopes Blaine will have the answer to this one.

Finding the book motivates Kurt again. He suddenly has an idea.

He leaves the exhibition and he takes the train to Bushwick. Maybe Blaine’s in the loft this time.

Kurt gets off at his stop and he walks towards the loft, book still in hand. He passes a couple of stores, including an art store. At first, Kurt walks past it without caring. After all, he has a mission.

But then he realises that someone has hung a drawing on the store window and not just any drawing, oh no, it’s a drawing of him.

Kurt walks back to the store and he looks at the drawing. It is absolutely stunning. It’s a very detailed pencil drawing of a portrait of Kurt. Underneath, a sentence is written: _Kurt, I am here! x B_

Kurt immediately enters the small art store and Blaine is standing behind the counter. He looks different in this dimension. His curls are loose and his wardrobe can be described as hipster. Kurt starts laughing the moment he sees Blaine, which alerts Blaine.

“Kurt!” he says and his face lights up.

“Blaine, you’re a hipster artist!” Kurt laughs.

Blaine starts laughing as well. “I guess I am. But you found me!”

Kurt nods towards the store window. “I saw your drawing. Who made it?”

Blaine turns a bit red. “I did.”

Kurt’s eyes widen. “You did? But I thought we didn’t ‘inherit’ the skills from the our versions of the dimensions?”

Blaine turns even redder. “I’ve always been great at drawing, Kurt. I just don’t draw that often. I’m good at it, but it’s not a hobby.”

Kurt almost drops the book in shock. How come Blaine never showed Kurt any of this?

Blaine’s eyes land on the book. “Oh, you got the book! Have you figured out-”

“Yes,” Kurt says. Since there’s no one else in the store, Kurt opens the book and he hands it to Blaine. “I have washi tape in my apartment. Does the pencil mean anything to you?”

“Definitely,” Blaine says as he scans the page, “It’s probably the pencil I used to draw that portrait. I have it with me.”

Blaine has his bag hidden underneath the counter, and he takes the pencil out of it. He puts it on the page and it disappears.

“Okay, now we need your tape.”

“Like I said, it’s in my apartment. Let’s go.”

But Blaine shakes his head. “Uhm, I kind of have a job? And it looks like the version of this Blaine needs it. That’s why I haven’t actively searched for you. Tomorrow’s my day off, but for now, I need to stay till 5.”

Kurt can wait.

* * *

“Wow. This is where you live?” Blaine looks around in awe. His awe becomes even more apparent when he sees the canvases with the drying oil paint. “Did you make these?”

“The me from this dimension did, yes,” Kurt says. He puts the book on the dining table and he takes the washi tape out of a drawer in the kitchen.

“Man, I currently live in a dump. The Blaine from this dimension is the stereotype of a struggling artist,” Blaine says, “Wow, look at those windows. Kurt from this dimension is the stereotype of a successful artist.”

“But the art from the Blaine from this dimension is stunning,” Kurt says.

In the store, Blaine had shown Kurt an art pad filled with pencil drawings, watercolour and gouache paintings, and charcoal sketches. There were a lot of sunflowers. It is so beautiful, they were almost tempted to take it with them in Blaine’s bag, together with Kurt’s book titles, but they don’t want to steal the work of this Blaine. He’s obviously put a lot of time and effort in it.

Instead, they decided to take Kurt’s portrait with them. It’s made by a different Blaine, but it’s just as beautiful.

Blaine pouts. “Art is hard.”

He takes the art pad out of his bag and he puts it next to the canvases.

“My address is in it. Maybe the Kurt from this world can return it and also give him some recognition,” he says.

“Hopefully, they’ll fall in love.”

Blaine sighs deeply. “That’s one of the weirdest parts of this dimension hopping. I expected us to be together in every one of them, but we’re not. So far, we’re either unfamiliar with each other, or we’re rivals. Another reason to get home as soon as possible.”

“Exactly!” Kurt says.

Blaine’s words do hit him. Why aren’t they in love in every dimension? Kurt just hopes that all the versions of him will eventually fall in love with their Blaines.

They have to continue, so Kurt puts the washi tape on the page. It disappears and it reappears as an image, next to the image of Blaine’s HB pencil. Kurt turns the page to see the new word.

“This looks fun,” Blaine says happily.

It says ‘superhero’.


	11. Superhero

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my fucking god. It’s almost 7K words long. I did not mean to do that, but I had planned out most of the story when today’s prompt got posted and it was as if the admins of the Klaine Advent knew I was going to write a superhero AU this day, so I couldn’t let this opportunity slide and I also didn’t want to delete the existing story. Therefore…
> 
> _TW: kidnapping, bomb threats, minor off-page character deaths_
> 
> See more in the end notes for details. I also was this close to turning this into an [All The Other Ghost/Grey](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.livejournal.com%2Ftools%2Fmemories.bml%3Fuser%3Drainjoyswriting%26keyword%3DGlee%21fic%3A%2520All%2520the%2520Other%2520Ghosts%26filter%3Dall&t=OGQxMTVkYTYyNDlmZDE2NTE0MjFmNWYyMDg4MmVjNmUxYzIzMmUyNCxjSVFaUktwSQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A1_FbMVvKlyXyfeQlKE-AmQ&p=http%3A%2F%2Fforabeatofadrum.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F181024190378%2Fall-the-pretty-things-that-we-could-be-1124&m=0) AU, because I love it, but I cannot do rainjoy’s work justice. I did leave one small reference to it in this fic: a sentence.

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 11: Kidnap  
**

**Dimension nine: Superhero**

* * *

Blaine slowly wakes up and Kurt is lying next to him.

 _That’s a first_ , he thinks. He’s lost count of how many dimensions he’s seen in the past few days, but this is the first dimension where Kurt’s with him in the beginning, not counting the space dimension. Usually, they have to find each other.

Kurt sleeping next to him isn’t even the most surprising thing. The fact that he’s wearing a superhero suit is.

Blaine sits up and he feels heavy. He’s wearing his trusty Nightbird costume. Blaine takes in his surroundings and he realises they weren’t asleep on a bed. They were asleep on a platform that’s hovering in the middle of some sort of dark lair.

Blaine is in the superhero dimension and it looks like he’s trapped.

Despite that, a feeling of joy wells up. He’s in a superhero dimension and he’s probably a superhero, _an actual superhero!_ Blaine’s love for superheroes isn’t hidden. After all, he was the president of the superhero club at McKinley.

Oh my god, he probably has actual Nightbird powers!

He shakes Kurt awake. “Kurt, Kurt, love, wake up, we’re captured superheroes!”

Kurt slowly starts to move.

“I am Nightbird for real this time,” Blaine can’t hide his excitement, “Kurt, oh my god, you’re a superhero as well, although I can’t figure out who you’re supposed to be!” After all, Kurt was in New York during the whole superhero craze and they were broken up.

Kurt blinks a couple of times and he’s waking up. “… Blaine?”

“Hi,” Blaine says softly.

“We’re… we’re together?” Kurt sits up as well and he looks around.

“Looks like we’ve finally found a dimension where we know each other,” Blaine says happily.

Kurt doesn’t sound as thrilled. “I just hope that we actually like each other in this dimension,” he sighs, “We knew each other in the space and in the private detective dimensions, but we apparently disliked each other, or at least the group of friends we were in.”

Blaine’s face falls, but then he says: “But we’re superheroes. We must like each other.”

Kurt investigates his suit. “Who am I?”

“I think I can help you with that,” they hear and the two of them look around in shock. After all, they are in a lair.

A hooded figure appears. “Or at least, I can tell you who you’re supposed to be after you tell me who you actually are.” Their voice sounds modified, so Kurt and Blaine can’t figure out who this person is supposed to be. Kurt and Blaine look at each other and Kurt nods his head. They’re not gonna tell this person anything.

“What do you want?” Blaine says instead.

“Let us go,” Kurt yells.

“Not until you bring my friends back,” the hooded figure says, “The two whose lives you’ve stolen. Bring them back now!”

Kurt and Blaine exchange another glare. _The lives they’ve stolen from this person’s friends?_ Could this person be on their side after all?

“You mean, you know we aren’t the actual Nightbird and whoever I am supposed to be?” Kurt asks. His tone is different now. Maybe they weren’t captured after all.

“Don’t try to hide it,” the hooded figure says darkly, “Bring back the real Nightbird and Porcelain, or we will detain you if necessary.”

Kurt raises his eyebrow. “Porcelain? My superhero alter is named Porcelain? Is Sue Sylvester in charge of this city?”

“No, Mayor Gilbert is the mayor of New York. Sue Sylvester is the president of the United States,” the hooded figure says, but this time, they sounds a bit confused.

“Wait, let us explain,” Kurt tries to step off the platform, but a force field pushes him back.

“Of course we’re trapped,” Blaine sighs.

“The only thing you can explain to me is how you get here and how I can get my friends back,” the hooded figure says, “I don’t want to hear anything else.”

“Maybe that is what they’re trying to explain, dude,” Kurt and Blaine hear and they look behind them. Another hooded figure is standing there.

“Okay, how many of you are there?” Blaine asks.

At the same time, Kurt says: “Yes, listen to your friend. I am trying to explain how we got here, although I am still not entirely sure myself.”

“Very well,” the first hooded figure says.

Kurt and Blaine don’t know if it’s a trap, but they decide to tell the hooded figures everything. Blaine tells them about the antique shop and the weird book and the objects and Kurt gives them a recap of all of the dimensions.

“Long story short, we’re sorry we’re overtaking the lives of the Kurt and Blaine from this dimension, but we honestly didn’t intent to.”

“We just want to find the book and continue our journey home,” Blaine adds.

“If you can help us, that’d be nice. The sooner we get out of here, the better, and we’d be out of your hair. Maybe your friends, the versions of us from this dimension, will reappear.” Kurt gets a guilty look on his face. “Sorry, we can’t promise you that they will, since we don’t know either. After all, we leave the dimensions before we can see if those versions return or not.”

“Again, there’s no malicious intent. We just want to go home.”

They can’t see the facial expressions of the hooded figures, but the first one snaps his fingers and the lights go on. The lair, if it’s even a liar, is huge. There’s a wall of monitors, there’s a small medical room, and most importantly, more people are staring at them.

This time, they’re recognisable. Some members from both The New Directions and The Warblers are staring at them.

The two hooded figures lower their hoods: Wes and Sam.

“How can we trust them for sure?” Santana asks.

“We can’t,” David, who’s sitting behind a computer, says, “But do we have another choice?”

“Besides, I strongly believe in the multiverse,” Mercedes says, “Their description of this ‘dimension hopping’ isn’t the same as the description of the multiverse, but it’s close enough. Besides, Santana, we work with the superheroes of New York, we’ve seen a lot of impossible things.”

“You’re probably from a world where superheroes don’t exist, aren’t you?” Trent asks and Blaine nods.

“In that case, maybe you should follow Quinn and Trent to the training room.”

* * *

Blaine has actual superpowers, _actual superpowers_. He’s currently in a training facility of an actual superhero hideout. With the help of Quinn and Trent, Kurt and Blaine are learning about their powers and how to use them.

He has heightened senses, especially in the dark. Due to the force field, Blaine didn’t realise, but now that he’s in the training room, it feels like his entire body is unknown to him. He hears everything, he can see every detail, he doesn’t know his own strength, he can touch different things on surfaces, and it feels like his werewolf nose has returned. It’s overwhelming. After some training with Trent he has it under control. Sort of.

Kurt has the power of teleportation and invisibility, or as Trent puts it, mobility. In theory, his powers sounds a bit weaker than Blaine’s, but in reality, he’s so creative with it that they’re both equally powered. Maybe Kurt’s even more powerful, but they’re all about cooperation. Blaine likes that.

Apparently, Kurt didn’t pick the name Porcelain himself. When Kurt first appeared in the public eye, some called him weak and fragile ‘as porcelain’, mostly since his powers are limited (in theory). But Kurt soon proved them wrong and he decided to keep the name out of spite, and also because he liked it in a way.

And Blaine can understand why. He watches Kurt, his Kurt, move and teleport around the training room. Quinn also teaches them fighting techniques. Their physiques match the superhero lifestyle, but since Kurt and Blaine don’t ‘inherit’ the skills from their versions, Quinn has to teach them all over again.

They’ve been training for hours when the door slides open. Rachel is peeking around.

“Anything you want, Rachel?” Trent asks.

“Well, I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news,” Rachel replies, “The bad news is that the New York Public Library got a bomb threat.”

“Okay, that’s not good,” Quinn says gravely, “What’s the good news?”

“We have reasons to believe that the antique book you’ve described is currently located in the same New York Public Library,” Rachel tells Kurt and Blaine.

“What do we do?” Kurt asks and Quinn, Rachel and Trent look at him as if he’s crazy.

“Uhm, you’re going to check out the bomb threat?” Trent answers as if it’s obvious.

“We’re what?” Blaine yells.

Rachel takes Kurt’s arm and Quinn’s hand. Quinn also takes Trent’s hand. “Kurt, teleport us back to the main room.”

Blaine quickly holds on to Rachel’s free arm and the next thing he knows, they’ve all teleported back. Their suits are ready for them.

“We- we can’t do this,” Kurt protests.

“I’m sorry, but you have to,” Wes says and he pushes the suits in their hands, “New York still needs Nightbird and Porcelain.”

“But we’re not Nightbird and Porcelain,” Blaine says back, “We now know how to use our powers in training, but not in actual combat.”

“Then figure it out,” Santana says and she takes both Kurt and Blaine by the necks, so that she can put some kind of earbud in their ears. It kind of hurts, but Santana doesn’t seem to care. “Besides, we’ll be there.”

“Go!”

* * *

The layout of New York is the same as the layout of New York from their dimension, so Kurt teleports them to the New York Public Library.

“Okay, do you see anything unusual?” Santana asks. She’s monitoring Kurt and Blaine with the help of Jeff.

“Yeah, there are cops everywhere,” Blaine says.

Santana sighs. “That’s not unusual for us.”

The police are evacuating the building. One of them notices Kurt and Blaine and she seems relieved.

“Oh good thing you’re here!” she says.

“Ask her what is going on,” Jeff tells them, so Kurt and Blaine do.

“The library got a bomb threat so we’re waiting for our bomb division to arrive. Meanwhile, we’re just evacuating everyone in the library or in the immediate area.” Then she looks around and she lowers her voice into a whisper. She is about to tell them something. “I know the New York City police department does not want to give you information, but we have reason to believe that Razor Claw is behind this attack.”

Then she looks alarmed. “I can’t say more. I am sorry.”

“We’re incredibly thankful for your input,” Blaine says.

She nods quickly and she leaves.

Blaine presses on the earbud. “Who is Razor Claw?”

Suddenly, people start to scream and point towards something up on the roof, or someone. A masked man wearing a suit is standing on the roof. He has claws like Wolverine, but Blaine bets that this guy does not has the same intentions as Wolverine. He’s holding a screaming boy.

The police all immediately grab for their guns and they aim at him.

Kurt doesn’t wait for a reply from Santana or Jeff. He lets go of Blaine’s hand and he disappears. For a second, Blaine is freaking out, but then he remembers that Porcelain has the power of teleportation and invisibility.

“Let the boy go, Mr. Claw,” one of the cops yells.

Razor Claw laughs and it is the typical evil supervillain laugh that Blaine’s always heard in movies. He holds out a remote.

“You really think guns can stop me? Haven’t you learned your lesson by now? Nothing can stop me, not even you, Porcelain!” Razor Claw pushes the air behind him, or at least, it looks like that. Kurt becomes visible again and he falls down. Razor Claw extends his claws and he aims at Kurt. Kurt rolls away just in time to avoid getting stabbed by a maniac.

Thanks to Quinn’s training, Kurt jumps back on his feet and while doing so, he kicks Razor Claw in the face. Blaine has to help him so he starts climbing the pillars of the library. Thanks to his super strength, he can do it with ease.

“Porcelain, try to kick the remote out of his hand,” Santana says.

Blaine can’t see Kurt anymore, but he can hear Razor Claw yell in pain. _That’s my fiancé_ , Blaine thinks proudly. He continues his climb until he’s at the part of the front with the statues. He hears bystanders gasp while they’re being led away by the police. Blaine can hear a thud and he hears Razor Claw laugh.

Blaine continues his climb and just as he arrives at the roof, he sees that Kurt’s on the ground again. Razor Claw has the boy, the hostage, in his grip again and he laughs. He holds up the remote.

“Goodbye, library.”

He pushes the button and a part of the library starts to shake. Blaine hears screams and he doesn’t think. He rushes into the library through a window. People are running past Blaine. Only a part of the library has been destroyed but Blaine can still hear Razor Claw laughing.

He’s not done yet.

Blaine presses on his earbud again. “What do I do?”

“Use your strength to make escape routes,” Jeff says quickly, “Push away objects and what not. You also have a knife in your utility belt. It looks like he’s letting the bombs go off one by one.”

“Porcelain, you can transport people out of there,” Santana says and suddenly, Kurt is standing next to Blaine again, “But beware, you can only take up to four people with you each time. Take them outside.”

“Will do,” Kurt says.

They move fast. Blaine’s helping people who are trapped. Thanks to his heightened senses, he can hear every cry and plead for help. He leads them to Kurt who teleports them out of the building.

“Go, go, go!” Blaine yells to the people who are free to move. Kurt’s got his handful. Since he can only save four people at a time, a queue is starting.

Suddenly, people start to yell and cry as the building shakes again.

“What just happened?” Blaine asks.

“Another bomb went off,” Santana tells them, “The bomb squad has arrived, but the entrance is blocked off.”

“Nightbird, find a way to the entrance and remove whatever’s blocking them,” Jeff says.

“How many more bombs are there?” Blaine asks as he finds his way to the entrance. He’s been in the library before, although it looks a little bit different in this dimension.

“Rachel is scanning the building, but we’ve honestly got no idea,” Jeff answers, “But we can assume that there are multiple, so that he can destroy the library part by part. Such a shame, the library recently got rebuilt after it got blown up three years ago.

“What is wrong with this dimension?” Blaine yells.

“A lot,” Santana yells back, “But we don’t have time to talk about that. Are you at the entrance?”

“Yes,” Blaine says. There are people inside and they’re relieved to see him, as if they think that Blaine’s presence automatically saves them. The entrance is blocked by some wooden bars that have fallen down from somewhere. On the outside, Blaine can hear the police trying to hack them down, so Blaine decides to meet them halfway from the inside.

He takes the knife out of his utility belt. Blaine really needs an axe, but right now, the knife will have to do. Thanks to his super strength, it can act like an axe.

Blaine tries not to flinch visibly when the building starts to shake again. He has to focus on getting people out of here. At this point, he has no hope for the bomb squad anymore, since they’re too late, but the people inside still need to get out.

“Porcelain, how’s the situation?” Blaine asks.

“Still teleporting people out of here,” Kurt replies, “I’ve started teleporting to the people who are stuck, to teleport them out of there. We have to be quick. I did find the book, but that’s not the point right now.”

So asking Kurt to come down to teleport these people out won’t work, because then Kurt will have the people he’s currently saving behind. Blaine can’t even be happy about Kurt finding the book.

He has to focus. His hearing picks up every sound, every cry, every plead. Trent has taught him how to control his senses, but he’s too busy hacking this stupid knife into these wooden bars to turn off his extra hearing. It’s driving him crazy, but it also keeps him going.

“Porcelain, Nightbird,” Santana sounds worried, “It seems like you two are in the last two parts of the building that are still standing.” Santana doesn’t have to say it out loud: they’re in danger. The next bomb could go off any time and they’re in the middle of the bomb site.

Blaine and police finally hack down the couple of wooden bars and Blaine pushes them aside. He ushers the people out of the library.

“Tell the bomb squad it’s too dangerous to go in,” Jeff says.

“I think they got the memo,” Blaine says as he watches the bomb squad help the people who just ran out of the building, instead of going in.

Blaine can still hear people who are stuck. A part of him wants to turn off the extra hearing, because it really is starting to drive him crazy, but it can help him find people. He goes back to help Kurt, who is still teleporting people. When Blaine sees him again, he looks exhausted. He doesn’t know how tiring the teleporting must be.

“You’re back!” Kurt says.

“There are still many people in here,” Blaine says, “Let’s get to work.”

The building shakes again and Blaine knows that the entrance has just been blown into pieces. This is the last part.

“You have to get out of there,” Jeff says.

“But there are still people in here,” Kurt says back.

“Save as many as you can, but when the last bomb goes off, you’re gone,” Santana says.

They do as Santana says. Blaine continues moving away objects and Kurt continues to teleport people to safety.

“Where is Razor Claw now?” Kurt asks.

“He disappeared after the second bomb went off. Rachel and David are trying to find him, but we don’t know where is he,” Santana answers.

The floor is starting to shake.

“Porcelain, Nightbird, get out of there!” Jeff starts to yell.

Blaine can still hear people begging for help. “Jeff, we can’t leave them.”

“Porcelain, Nightbird, now!” Santana yells and it’s almost as if she’s begging as well.

“No-”

Blaine can hear an explosion and at an instant, Kurt grabs his hand and they’re back at the lab.

“Take us back!” Blaine yells. He can feel the tears streaming down his face and it’s really uncomfortable with his mask on.

“We can’t go back, Blaine,” Kurt says and he looks so sorry, “We aren’t immortal. We had to get out of there. There’s nothing we could’ve done for them.”

“We could’ve saved them!” Blaine protests, “We could’ve gone back in and we could’ve saved them. We could’ve helped them.”

Kurt doesn’t understand. Kurt doesn’t have heightened senses. He didn’t hear the people crying and begging for help.

Kurt’s shaking his head and he’s crying himself. “Don’t think for a second that it was easy for me to teleport us out of there, knowing that we had to leave people behind. But there was nothing-”

“No, we could’ve gone back in.”

“We could’ve, but then we couldn’t have gone out.”

Blaine just screams. He’s so incredibly angry. He looks around and people are staring at him in shock. Maybe the Blaine from this dimension has no trouble leaving people behind, but Blaine is not that Blaine. What is the point of being a superhero if you can’t fix it? He slams his fist against the wall and thanks to his super strength, he leaves a dent in it.

He hasn’t felt this angry in a while. He’s supposed to fix things. He’s supposed to make it all better.

Why does this all happen to him? Why is the one who could hear them crying in the basement? Why is he the one who had to watch Wes die in the apocalypse? Most importantly, why is he unable to save people?

“Blaine, you gotta calm down!” Sam says sternly.

“Dude, you’re slowly destroying our lab,” Wes says as well.

But Blaine doesn’t care. “Find a way to bring me back!” he yells at Rachel.

Rachel is shaking her head and Blaine can see a tear roll down her cheek. “I can’t.”

“Yes you can!”

Rachel starts crying even harder. “Yes I can, but we’re too late. David just hacked into some files. The people are found dead.”

Dead.

They’re all dead and it’s Blaine’s fault.

He suddenly feels numb and he can see that Kurt’s yelling at someone behind Blaine, but despite his heightened senses, he can’t hear him. It’s as if his body’s shutting down. He uses his last energy to look behind him.

Wes has injected him with something.

Then everything goes black.

* * *

Kurt’s sitting at his bed and Blaine has a feeling of déjà vu. The last time he passed out like this was in the apocalypse dimension and when he woke up, Kurt was there sitting at his bed.

“You’re okay,” Kurt says softly and he takes Blaine’s hand.

“What did Wes do to me?”

“He gave you a shot of something and you blacked out,” Kurt says, “I didn’t like it, but according to Wes, the shot was made specifically for you by the version of you from this dimension. It’s for emergencies only. You did start destroying the lab.”

“I’m not sorry for getting angry.”

“I’m not mad at you for getting angry,” Kurt says and he squeezes Blaine’s hand, “In fact, I’m more mad at Wes for injecting something into you without your consent. He told me that this was your plan, but I reminded him that you are not actually his Blaine.”

“We could’ve saved them.”

But Kurt shakes his head. Why is he shaking his head? “I don’t think we could’ve. If we could’ve, Santana and Jeff wouldn’t have called us back.”

“We could’ve,” Blaine insists.

“Blaine, don’t think you’re the only one who’s crushed. I had to teleport away, knowing we were leaving people to die. And Santana and Jeff had to made the choice to tell us to leave. If you’re to blame, which I don’t believe, then we all share that blame with you.”

Blaine hates this feeling of helplessness. Why can’t he help everyone? He’s a superhero for Christ’s sake!

He can’t even fix the most obvious thing, like his relationship with Kurt. Why did he ever think he could save everyone out of a collapsing building? Why is he so stupid? He can’t even save himself sometimes.

“I have the feeling this issue goes deeper,” Kurt says.

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” Blaine turns away.

He hears Kurt sigh. He sounds frustrated. “Don’t be like that. Talk to me.”

“Oh yeah, like we’ve been talking a lot lately,” Blaine says.

“Don’t take this out on me.”

Blaine doesn’t reply. It’s childish, but he doesn’t know what to say. He doesn’t really want to tell Kurt that he feels like he’s failed them. What would he think?

Kurt sighs again, but this time he doesn’t sound frustrated. He sounds sad.

“I know we haven’t sat down and talked in a while and I am partly the blame for that. I don’t really like to talk about these things either, since that means I have to- to admit to myself that I might need help sometimes. We’ve been crazy busy in our dimension and now we’re crazy busy with this dimension hopping.”

“We still love each other, don’t we?”

“O- Of course,” Kurt immediately says back, and he sounds strained, as if he’s offended by the question. Blaine can understand. He’d be offended as well. _Of course_ they love each other, but he guesses he just needs to hear Kurt say it again.

When was the last time they says ‘I love you’ to each other?

Blaine can’t remember. They’ve been too busy.

Suddenly, Blaine can feel anger building up. If they love each other, then why are they so bad at communicating? How has it come this far?

“Okay,” Blaine turns back, “Let’s talk. Let’s talk about the fact that we never see each other anymore. Let’s talk about how we both know that we’ve hit a rough patch in our relationship and you don’t want me to fix it-”

“Blaine.”

“Let’s talk about how we’re slowly starting to prioritize other things in life. Let’s talk about how you don’t want me to help you when you feel sad-”

“There’s a difference between supporting a person and fixing a person, Blaine,” Kurt interrupts.

He always says that.

“This issue does go deeper, doesn’t it?” Kurt says. It doesn’t sound like an accusation, but Blaine has the feeling that it is.

Anger slowly leaves Blaine’s body. “I am not saying you need fixing or anything, Kurt. You don’t need me to be your shining knight on a white horse. Honestly, I sometimes think you are _my_ shining knight. But you close yourself off. You’ve always been a bit like that, and we both know that, but lately, I feel like you’ve been cutting me off.”

“Blaine, I-”

“I don’t necessarily want to fix you. I don’t need to. I just want to support you, but lately you’ve been giving off this vibe, as if you don’t even want me to support you. We’re both busy. We’re both stressed. We both snap at each other about the most ridiculous things… I don’t dread going home at the end of the day, but sometimes I do dread the mood you’ll be in. And there’s nothing I can do to cheer you up. If I can’t even help my own fiancé, I can’t help anyone else.”

Blaine’s crying. He knows that he is and he can see Kurt’s eyes water. Oh god, they have fucked up. Oh god, they have fucked up so badly, _to get to here_ , how could they get to here?

“Why won’t you let me help you?”

Kurt wipes away his tears and he makes Blaine sit up to face him. Blaine’s still weak, but he has the feeling that whatever Wes put in him is wearing off.

“Because I worry about you,” Kurt answers.

“ _You_ worry about _me_?” Blaine asks, almost indignantly. Blaine’s the one who worries about Kurt. Why would Kurt worry about him?

Kurt nods. “I worry that you care so much, that it will destroy you. I am afraid that you will put your own well-being aside for others, including me. Your life revolves around me. You let me decide everything.”

“I don’t want to be selfish.”

“You’re so obsessed with not being selfish that you’re becoming selfless.”

 _But… isn’t that a good thing?_ he wants to ask.

“Some things are out of your hand, Blaine. You can’t save everyone, even when you’re wearing this ridiculous suit. And I admit that I am not good with letting people in, even you, because I’ve been too hurt in the past. And I know I have nothing to fear when it comes to you. _And_ I am working on it. But that still doesn’t mean that you’re less important than I am. You don’t need to be a superhero to still be a hero.”

Blaine closes his eyes. He does think he’s important. He really does.

Right?

And sure, Blaine does have the tendency to put himself on the second place, but if it makes Kurt happy, then it shouldn’t be a problem. He’d do everything for Kurt. He’d happily be less than Kurt if it makes Kurt happy.

Oh.

Oh God. Kurt’s right. He really is becoming too selfless. And it doesn’t make Kurt happy at all. On the contrary, it makes him worried.

“Oh God, what have I done?” Blaine cries out.

“No, no, none of that now,” Kurt says and he puts his hands on Blaine’s shoulders, “Look, you are a selfless person and that’s one thing that I love about you. Sometimes I wish I had your selflessness, but again, it’s not good for you. There’s also a thing called _selfcare_. It’s not your fault that sometimes things don’t work out for others. You try your best, and that’s enough. Don’t beat yourself up about everything.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I did, but you always told me I wouldn’t understand.”

Kurt’s right. He has tried to tell Blaine, but Blaine always waved his worries away.

“Look, when we get home, we will have a proper talk,” Kurt says, “I think we’ve kind of sucked at communication later.”

“Yeah, no kidding.”

“But I still love you, okay?”

Kurt leans in to kiss him and Blaine pulls him closer. They’re not perfect, but they’re perfectly imperfect. They’re not there yet, but they will get there.

They love each other and there was never a doubt there, but Kurt’s right. They need to talk more. They have to continue their trip through the dimensions and they will have to get home.

“I love you too,” Blaine says and he kisses Kurt again.

They keep kissing until someone clears his throat.

David is looking at them. “Man, I always knew you two were together. Trent owes me twenty bucks now.”

“We’re not them,” Kurt reminds David.

“Although we wouldn’t be surprised if they’re actually dating,” Blaine adds.

“Right, good, now before you two start having sex in our medical room, you should see this,” David says and he nods towards the monitors.

They follow David, hand in hand. Some notice it, but they don’t comment on it. Besides, they’re all paying attention to the monitors.

All the monitors have changed to the local news. The boy that Razor Claw has kidnapped is the grandson of Mayor Gilbert and he’s holding him for a ransom. Mayor Ransom was out of town for official business, but he’s flying back.

“Who is this Razor Claw?” Blaine asks. They never answered his question.

“No one knows,” Artie answers.

“Razor Claw arrived in New York two years ago. We’ve tried to defeat him and we’ve tried to unmask him several times, but we’ve gotten absolutely nowhere,” Mercedes tells them.

Sam adds: “We don’t know his motivation. We don’t know how to defeat him. All we know is that he’s a piece of shit.”

All heads turn to Sam.

Sam throws up his hands. “Hey, am I wrong?”

The news show a video clip of Razor Claw and the boy. The boy’s tied up to a chair and he looks very afraid. Razor Claw threatens to kill him, unless his parents, the daughter of Mayor Gilbert and her wife, pay the ransom.

“Can we find a location?” Wes asks.

David and Rachel are sitting behind the screens and they’re typing in a rapid pace.

“No,” David says shortly.

The news changes back to the news anchor, who is very anxious as well. There’s a small photo of the boy tied up on screen. They zoomed in on him. Blaine squints his eyes. There’s an oddly shaped dent in the wall behind him.

“Pause the video!” Blaine yells.

Rachel hits pause.

“What is it?” she asks.

Blaine tugs at Kurt’s arm. “Look at that weird dent in the wall,” he says and he points towards it.

Kurt’s eyes widen when he realises what it is. “Are you telling me-”

“Yes.”

Nick waves to get their attention. “Are you telling me you know where to find the boy?” he asks in shock. Others seem shocked as well.

Blaine nods and Kurt looks confident as well.

“Well, what are we waiting for!” Santana yells, “Quick, grab suitable equipment. Rachel, try to reconnect the comms. Artie, show us the map of New York so that Kurt and Blaine point out the location. Go, go, go!”

Everyone’s running around.

Kurt squeezes Blaine’s hand.

“Ready, Nightbird?”

“Of course. Are you, Porcelain?”

“Definitely.”

Wes brings them their utility belts and Kurt helps Artie find the location so that David can hack the nearest camera.

They’re going to try to save this boy. Blaine has to accept that they might not succeed, but they will have to try.

* * *

In their dimension, right after Kurt and Rachel moved in together, Rachel decided to throw a small housewarming party. It was extremely small. In fact, their only guest was Brody.

They celebrated by cooking and if there’s one thing all the people in Kurt and Blaine’s dimension know, it is that Rachel Barbra Berry is a terrible cook. She tried to make chili sin carne, but for whatever reason, she thought she could move the pan around as if she were flipping an egg.

She succeeded the first time and even though Kurt tried to stop her, she tried another time. The pan flew out of her hands. Rachel was covered in tomato sauce and beans, and the pan hit the wall close to the kitchen. Brody was worried and Kurt was laughing. They ended up ordering Thai.

And that’s how they got a weirdly shaped dent in the wall in the loft.

* * *

Thanks to Kurt’s power, they’re invisible when they teleport into the loft. It is completely empty, except for a mattress and a chair. A small boy is tied to that chair and Razor Claw is sitting on the mattress. It looks like he’s sharpening his claws with some sort of nail file.

The boy is crying, but Razor Claw doesn’t seem to care. In fact, he yells: “Oh quit your whining, you dumb fuck.”

“I want mom. I want mama. I want grandpa.”

Razor Claw rolls his eyes. “Just shut your mouth, okay? We’re going to make another video and if you don’t shut up, I’ll beat you up. Hopefully that will make your mothers pay up faster.”

The boy spits in Razor Claw’s direction and Razor Claw laughs.

“The superheroes will come and save me! They will bring me back to mama and mom!”

Razor Claw laughs. “Those two coots? They couldn’t even save you back at the library. In fact, they couldn’t even save the library and all the people in it. What makes you think they can save you now?”

Blaine has to fight every fiber of his being to stop him from hitting Razor Claw in the face. Kurt tightens the grip on his hand.

“They’re superheroes!” the boy insists.

“They’re pathetic.”

Suddenly, the setting changes. They’ve teleported away. Kurt makes them visible again and he puts his finger against his lips. Blaine can still hear the boy and Razor Claw talking, so they’re nearby.

“Where are we?” he whispers.

“One floor underneath,” Kurt whispers back, “Looks like the building is abandoned in this dimension. That’s probably why Razor Claw took the loft as a hideout. No one’s going to barge into an abandoned building in Bushwick.”

“Why did you teleport us here?” Blaine asks.

“We need a plan, Nightbird. We can’t just ambush Razor Claw.”

“Porcelain is right,” Santana says and Blaine jumps. He’d forgotten that Jeff and Santana are still there.

“What do you suggest?” he asks.

Kurt starts counting the pockets on his utility belt. “There’s a knife in my fifth pocket. I suggest I teleport back and I cut the boy loose. Then I teleport him to safety. You hide outside the loft and the moment Razor Claw realises something is up, knock him down.”

Blaine’s sceptical. “That’s not really a waterproof plan.”

“You got a better idea?” Jeff asks.

“Nightbird, you got super strength,” Santana says, “You could knock him down if you get close to him. So far, we haven’t been able to get close to him, but thanks to the terrible cooking skills of Rachel from your dimension, we finally have a location.”

“And he won’t be expecting us,” Kurt says.

“He has Wolverine-like claws,” Blaine reminds him.

“And Quinn has taught us both high class athleticism,” Kurt says back, “You got this. Besides, I’ll teleport back as soon as possible.”

It really isn’t a great plan, but Jeff’s right. Time’s running out, so this is all they can do.

* * *

Blaine’s standing behind the closed door of the loft. He’s listening intensely. He’s waiting for any sign of Kurt. It’s dark, but thanks to his super senses, he can see in the dark. Unfortunately, he can’t see through the wooden door.

But then he hears movement.

“What the-”

Blaine doesn’t hesitate. He slides open the door and he watches Kurt and the boy disappear. He decks Razor Claw before Razor Claw has the time to process what has happened.

Razor Claw falls on the ground and he looks livid. He extends his claws. Razor Claw gets back on his feet and he starts clawing at Blaine.

Thanks to Quinn, Blaine knows how to dodge. At one point he ducks and he kicks Razor Claw.

Razor Claw falls on the ground and Blaine immediately jumps on him and he starts holding Razor Claw down with one arm.

He uses his free arm to press his earbud. “Guys, what now?”

“We’re on it, Nightbird!” Jeff says.

Jeff’s lack of answers throws Blaine off guard for a second and Razor Claw uses it to throw Blaine off him. Blaine falls on the ground and he rolls away just in time. Razor Claw’s claws sink into the wooden floor, but he has no problem getting them out of there. Blaine tries to kick him again, but he misses and Razor Claw extends his claws even further.

“This ends now, Nightbird.”

Blaine prepares himself to dodge, but suddenly, Razor Claw’s eyes roll back and he falls on the ground. Blaine can hear a small electric buzz.

Kurt’s standing there with a taser in hand. “Hey.”

“Hey you.”

“Artie had been working on tasers. They weren’t finished yet, but Jeff thought it’d be a great idea to test them on Razor Claw,” Kurt says happily. He presses on his earbud. “They work!”

Blaine fishes some handcuffs out of his utility belt and he puts them around Razor Claw’s wrists. “Let’s take him in.”

* * *

Sam high-fives Blaine.

“Man, the actual Nightbird and Porcelain are going to be pissed that you two managed to take out Razor Claw. I know Porcelain wanted to take him out so badly.”

“That’s why we’re leaving the unmasking for them,” Kurt says.

They had teleported the unconscious Razor Claw to the lab and Mercedes and Nick had immediately put him in power-dampening cell.

Rachel and Wes are fussing over the boy they’ve saved and his mothers are on their way to pick him up. They sounded very grateful and tearful over the phone. Mayor Gilbert is still in the air, but he’s been alerted as well.

Kurt and Blaine finally have time to inspect the book. After everything that has happened, the book was the last of their concern.

There are two round shapes on the page.

“Oh great, how detailed,” Blaine mutters.

Trent, Mercedes and Sam are looking at the book with great interest and Kurt and Blaine tell them about all the previous dimensions while they wait for the mothers to arrive.

When they do, the little boy immediately runs towards his parents. They’re all crying and hugging, so Kurt and Blaine decide to step away to give them some privacy.

Eventually, one of the mothers approaches them and she pulls them into a hug.

“Words cannot explain the feeling of gratitude that my wife and I are experiencing right now,” she says, “It’s the least we could do, but please, take these as a sign of our gratitude.”

Blaine wants to protest and tell her that it isn’t necessary, but the woman holds out two golden pins with the coat of arms of New York on it.

“Just don’t tell my dad I stole his golden pins,” she says and the three of them laugh.

“Honey, he’s the mayor of New York. He has enough of them,” her wife calls out. She’s still holding her son.

Kurt and Blaine accept the pins, knowing that they belong to the book.

They can’t activate it in front of the boy and his parents, so they wait till they’re gone. It takes a while, because the mothers are busy thanking everyone and the boy wants to explore the lab, but when they do, it’s time to go.

Kurt puts his pin on the page.

The others stare in awe when they watch it disappear.

“Well, this has been fun, but it is time for us to go,” Kurt says to the others.

Blaine nods. “We really hope the actual Nightbird and Porcelain return.”

“Also, it was really nice to be able to talk about this dimension hopping with others for a change,” Kurt says and Blaine hums in agreement.

“Speaking of dimension hopping…” Blaine turns back to the book and he puts his pin on the page, “You’re gonna want to see this.”

The pin disappears and three new words appear on the next page: The Good Place.

Kurt and Blaine share a look. They have no idea what this means, but the words start to grow. They start to surround them and Kurt and Blaine can see the others looking in shock. Blaine waves.

“Goodbye guys!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am still in shock. Honestly, you should’ve seen the look on my face when I realised it was 6968 words long.
> 
> Anway, Kurt and Blaine are called to a bomb threat and a villain named Razor Claw (thanks [fantasynamegenerators](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fantasynamegenerators.com%2Fvillain_names.php&t=ODY3NGUwMTc1NzQyNDgwYTBlNTMwZGEyZmVlMTA4NjI4ZGM4NjY5MyxjSVFaUktwSQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A1_FbMVvKlyXyfeQlKE-AmQ&p=http%3A%2F%2Fforabeatofadrum.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F181024190378%2Fall-the-pretty-things-that-we-could-be-1124&m=0) for that one) is there. There are indeed bombs and Kurt and Blaine have to save people inside the library, but they don’t succeed. Razor Claw then kidnaps a child. Apart from the kidnapping, the child doesn’t get very hurt, although Razor Claw does threaten to hurt and kill him.
> 
> And last, the sentence I copied from Grey is “Oh god, they have fucked up. Oh god, they have fucked up so badly, _to get to here_ , how could they get to here?” The ATOG verse is by far one of the best written works of fanfiction out here, so I highly recommend it, but heed the warnings.
> 
> … wow, 7K+ words. Can you believe I still cut out a B-plot?


	12. The Good Place

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Start me up, we’re halfway there!

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 12: Language**

**Dimension ten: The Good Place**

* * *

_Welcome! Everything is fine._

* * *

Kurt wakes up and everything feels fine.

Well, that is until he realises the person lying next to him is not Blaine.

Kurt almost falls out of the bed when he sees that Adam Crawford is asleep next to him.

“What the fork?” Kurt says to himself. _Wait. Fork?_ “Huh, I meant to say fork, I mean, fork.” _Fuck._ Did Kurt end up in a place where language has changed?

Kurt quietly sneaks out of the bedroom. He’s not in the loft. In fact, he has absolutely no idea where he is. It looks like a house, not an apartment, and even though Kurt loves the design and the furniture, it’s not his home.

He still remembers the last three words he saw on the page: the good place. What does that even mean?

Kurt’s confusion grows when he draws the curtains and he looks outside. This is not New York. Kurt sees a simple street with a lot of different houses. There’s a small cottage next to a gigantic mansion.

“Oh, you’re awake,” Adam says and he yawns, “I’m going to start on some pancakes.”

“Adam, what are you doing here?”

Adam smiles, as if Kurt’s joking. “We live here, remember? We’re soulmates.”

Kurt shakes his head. That can’t be right. Blaine is his soulmate and sure, they’re going through a rough patch, but Kurt’s sure Blaine’s his soulmate. Kurt doesn’t even know if he truly believes in soulmates, but if they’re real, then Blaine’s the one for Kurt, not Adam.

“Where is here exactly?”

Adam’s smile falters. “Kurt, we’re in The Good Place, remember? Are you feeling alright?”

“What exactly is this good place?” Kurt asks.

Adam looks worried. Then he says: “Hey Janet.”

Kurt jumps in shock when a woman appears out of thin air.

“Yes, Adam?” she asks.

“Could you please scan if Kurt’s ill or… I don’t know… he’s acting weird,” Adam says.

“Of course,” Janet says shortly. Then she turns to Kurt and she opens her mouth. Static noise comes out of it. Janet closes her mouth. “Adam, I can assure you that Kurt is totally healthy, which is understandable since this is The Good Place.”

What is this good place?

“Excuse me, lady-”

“Not a lady,” Janet says.

“Oh, uhm, excuse me, Siri-”

“Not Siri.”

“Excuse me, _Janet_ ,” Kurt says, a bit irritated, “What exactly is this good place stuff?”

“The Good Place is where you go after you’ve lived a good life on Earth. You, Kurt Hummel, have died and you’ve earned enough points to get you into the good place. Hooray.” Janet does a weird robotic dance. 

“Wait, I am dead?” Kurt yells out.

Adam grows more worried.

“Absolutely,” Janet says (too) cheerfully, “And since you’ve suffered a terrible death, we’ve decided to wipe your memories of your terrifying death, but do you want to know anyway?”

Kurt shakes his head. “Then, what are you?”

“I am Janet from the Janet-kind,” Janet says, “I am neither a human nor an Eternal Being, I am rather an anthropomorphized vessel of knowledge, a sort of Artificial Intelligence, and I am your assistant during the rest of your afterlife. I can summon almost everything for you and I am your source for knowledge. I also-”

Adam cuts in: “Janet, don’t you think it’s a bit weird that Kurt’s asking you this?”

Janet turns back to Adam with the same plastered smile on her face. She kind of creeps Kurt out. “Yes, I do, Adam, but he asked me for the information and I provide it to him without asking questions.” 

“Uhm, Janet?” Kurt says so that Janet turns her attention back to him, “Why is Adam here?”

“Because he is your soulmate,” Janet answers.

Kurt shakes his head. “That can’t be right. Adam can’t be my soulmate.”

To Kurt’s surprise, Adam seems crushed.

“If you have any inquiries about your life here in The Good Place, you can take it up to Gilbert. After all, as an architect, it is his job to make your afterlife as perfect as possible.”

“And this whole good place thing is another dimension?”

Janet shakes her head. “No. It is the afterlife.”

“No, wait, Janet, let me explain it properly.”

Kurt tells Janet (and Adam) about the dimension hopping, Blaine, and the book. This is the second dimension where Kurt has to explain it and he desperately hopes that the people in this dimension will believe him as well.

“… so to me, this sounds like a setting of a movie or what not, and I am put in it.”

Janet only blinks.

Adam sighs sadly. “Janet, scan Kurt again.”

Janet does and she comes to the same conclusion: Kurt is healthy, which is the norm in The Good Place.

“Janet, can you act as a lie detector?” Kurt asks.

Janet nods. “Yes, I know everything.”

“Then, was I lying?”

“No.”

Adam’s eyes widen and Kurt can feel a satisfied grin spread on his face.

Janet still has a happy face, but she says: “I am confusing myself. I have no knowledge of this dimension hopping you speak of, and I know everything, so I also know you are telling the truth. I am broken.”

Janet walks over to a wall and she starts banging her head against it. She’s still smiling during the process.

She suddenly disappears and Kurt is left alone with Adam. By now, Adam has fallen down on the couch and he is in shock. Despite everything, Kurt feels a pang of sadness for him.

“Adam, I’m sorry, but I cannot be your soulmate.”

“It’s okay,” Adam says weakly, “You’re not him.”

Kurt shakes his head. “No, I’m not, and honestly I have a hard time accepting that one version of me has you as a soulmate, not Blaine. I have to ask, but don’t you think that there’s something wrong with us, or your Kurt and you, being soulmates? If I am correct, this whole afterlife is a system, and systems can be corrupt.”

Adam remains silent and Kurt prepares himself to get hit in the face. Maybe he is overstepping. Maybe he did fall in love with Adam in one dimension.

But to his surprise, Adams sighs. “I’ve wondered… I am in love with you- I mean, him, but sometimes I can’t help but wonder if the feeling is mutual. He likes me, but I don’t know if he loves me.”

Adam doesn’t cry, but he radiates sadness.

Kurt can’t show Adam that he’s feeling hopeful, so instead he sits next to him, hoping that his presence comforts him in some way.

“You know of me, though,” Adam says.

“We actually dated in my dimension, but I left you for Blaine,” Kurt says.

Adam nods. “This Blaine must be someone special if you’re literally hopping dimensions for him.”

“You are taking it relatively well, compared to the version of you in my dimension,” Kurt says, “I wonder what he’s up to these days.”

Adam takes a deep breath and he blinks some tears away. Kurt looks away to give him some sort of privacy.

“Okay, your Blaine. Let’s find him,” Adam says.

Kurt looks a bit shocked. “You’re okay with that?”

Adam smiles sadly. “I love you, Kurt. I love every version of you, and if you love someone, you want them to be happy. So let’s find this Blaine. According to you, he must be in this dimension as well and he’s currently taking over the life from the Blaine in The Good Place.”

“Adam, I’m-”

“Don’t,” Adam says shortly. Then he says: “Hey Janet.”

Janet instantly appears. “Yes, Adam?” Janet still looks happy, but there’s something different now that they’ve broken her. Janet seems a bit tired.

“Can you help us locate the resident named Blaine…”

“Anderson,” Kurt says.

“Blaine Anderson?”

“I can, but that would violate Blaine Anderson’s privacy,” Janet says happily.

“Can’t you, uhm, go and ask him if he wants to share his location?” Kurt asks and Janet nods. She disappears. “Wow, she really is a living Siri.”

“Except for the fact that Janet is not alive,” Adam says.

They wait for a couple of minutes, but Janet is still absent.

“So…”

“So,” Kurt says back.

It’s awkward. It feels like Kurt just broke Adam’s heart. In his dimension, Adam was just a bit pissed off, nothing more. In this dimension, Adam is actually in love with his version of Kurt, but his version of Kurt is not in love with him. After all these dimensions, Kurt knows that he cannot feel responsible for the thoughts and actions of his other versions, since they’re technically not him, but he really does feel like he’s the one who just crushed Adam.

“What are you going to do after I leave?” Kurt decides to ask.

Adam shrugs. “Hopefully, my Kurt will reappear. I think we need to talk to Gilbert about the soulmate calculations.”

“Again, I truly am sorry.”

“Not your fault,” Adam says automatically.

Kurt decides that not talking is the better option. They wait in silence for a couple more minutes till Janet reappears in front of them.

“What took you this long, Janet?” Adam asks.

“Sorry for the inconveniences,” Janet says cheerfully, “I had to ambush Blaine Anderson in his house. He was very worried about the situation, since he doesn’t know how The Good Place works. I had to explain everything to him, which only confirms your story about dimension hopping. I am more broken than ever and you should probably kill me. Hooray! Death!”

Janet does another cheery dance. She really weirds Kurt out.

“… This place is forking crazy!”

Janet nods. “That statement is correct. Good news is that Blaine is expecting you at the froyo place in the neighbourhood. Oh, look at the time.” Janet looks down on her wrist. She isn’t wearing a watch. “If I were you, I’d get dressed as soon as possible. Bye.”

Janet disappears again.

Kurt blinks a couple of times. The afterlife is weird.

“Well, good luck,” Adam says.

“Aren’t you coming with me to the froyo place?” Kurt asks.

But Adam shakes his head. “And watch you be in love with someone else? I don’t think I can.”

* * *

Kurt wishes he’d tried to persuade Adam to join him after all, because he’s hopelessly lost. He walks around the gorgeous neighbourhood. Kurt can’t believe that he’s been proven wrong about life after death. He wonders if his mom and Finn are here.

He doesn’t want to dwell on it. He’d love to summon Janet and ask her about them, but he has to go on. After all, this isn’t real.

He knows that seeing Finn and his mother would crush him, despite it not being real.

So instead of ambushing Janet, he walks around the neighbourhood until he finally finds himself in a plaza. It’s all very picturesque. He sees a frozen yoghurt place and Blaine’s waiting for him outside. He’s holding two froyos.

Blaine smiles when he sees Kurt approaching. “Hey, how’s life, or death in this case?”

“You’re very cheerful about being dead,” Kurt says, but he’s joking.

“Eh, it’s not real,” Blaine shrugs, “We’ll move on to another dimension quickly. I do have to admit that Janet freaked me out this morning, especially when she started asking me to kill her.”

“While smiling?”

Blaine shudders at the thought. “That was the creepiest thing.”

He holds out the froyo and Kurt takes it. They walk to the big fountain and they sit down. “This place is beautiful. It’d almost be a shame to go,” Kurt says. So far, he hasn’t seen a setting like this before. The Harry Potter one was majestic, and Kalos and Sinnoh were beautiful as well, but it just feels so peaceful here.

“I assume heaven is supposed to be beautiful,” Blaine says and he looks around as well, “Or whatever this is. According to Janet, heaven doesn’t exist, and since Janet knows everything, I trust her. She has infinite knowledge and she can summon everything we want. This is so weird.”

Kurt suddenly has an idea. “Do you think Janet can really summon everything we want?”

“Yeah, why?”

But Kurt calls out: “Hey Janet.”

Janet appears in front of them and Blaine almost falls backwards into the fountain, but Kurt stops him from falling.

“Yes, Kurt?”

“Can you summon the book from the antique shop?” Kurt asks.

Blaine shakes his head. “Kurt, Janet admitted that she doesn’t know about the dimension…”

He trails off when he sees that Janet is holding the book. “This mysterious object?”

Kurt nods eagerly but Blaine is confused. “How did you know where to find this?”

Janet, still smiling, says: “Oh, I didn’t. I have no knowledge of this book, but I can summon everything you ask me for, including puppies. I am still broken and I should totally get murdered!”

Kurt takes the book out of Janet’s hands and Janet starts dancing happily. Blaine’s staring at her.

“Thank you, Janet,” Kurt says and Janet disappears. Kurt sets down his froyo on the fountain ledge and he opens the book. All their memories from the previous dimensions are in it, so it really is the book from the antique shop. It’s really confusing, so Kurt can’t blame Janet from claiming that she’s broken, although he really wishes she’d stop asking to be killed.

“Let’s take this somewhere else, because I don’t want people to look at us.”

“This is the afterlife, Blaine. They’re probably used to weird stuff. After all, this neighbourhood has some sort of Alexa that can summon anything.”

“Still, let’s go. Do you live nearby, because my house is on the other side of the neighbourhood.”

“Uhm, yes, but we shouldn’t go there,” Kurt quickly says.

“Why not?”

It’s no use hiding the truth. “Because I apparently live there with Adam Crawford,” he answers.

Blaine’s face blanches. “Oh.”

“And I just broke his heart this morning by making him realise that the Kurt from this dimension probably does not love him, so my place is currently off-limits.”

* * *

They’re walking to Blaine’s house and Blaine asks: “What did you say to Adam?”

“Why do you care?”

Blaine grumbles something. Did Kurt hear that correctly.

“… are you jealous?” Kurt laughs.

“Maybe,” Blaine admits.

Kurt laughs even harder. “Blaine, I just broke the guy’s heart! You have no reason to be jealous of him in any way.”

“Sorry, it’s a reflex,” Blaine says.

“Well, if you really want to know, I broke his heart by telling him about you. After Janet confirmed to him that I wasn’t lying about the whole dimension hopping thing, he knew I was telling the truth. I made matters worse, because apparently, this was also a confirmation that his Kurt is not his soulmate.”

“And you think the Kurt from this dimension has Blaine from this dimension as soulmate?” Blaine asks.

“Oh definitely.”

Blaine seems happier after that. They continue their walk to Blaine’s house and Kurt watches him. Yesterday, in the superhero dimension, Blaine was so worried about their relationship and yes, there were some worrisome parts, but hearing that Kurt believes in them must be a motivator for Blaine to get home.

Kurt also can’t wait to go home and when they do, they will change things. Kurt’s decided this in the famous dimension: he’s going to set his pride aside and quit his job. It’s time to fix things that can be fixed.

They continue their trip in comfortable silence till they arrive at Blaine’s house. Blaine lives in a beautiful brick home, next to a wooden cabin. Inside, Kurt immediately flips to the right page.

“What are those supposed to be?” Blaine asks when he sees the two outlines.

Kurt traces the one on the right. “Is this supposed to be a cactus? What does a cactus have to do with this place?”

“And we have another rectangle shape,” Blaine says, “What are these and how do we find these things?”

“Maybe we could ask Janet?” Kurt asks, “She’s supposed to be all knowing.”

“But she told us she’s broken because she doesn’t know a thing about the dimension hopping,” Blaine says back.

“Yeah, but she still managed to summon this book for us. We can try.”

“Well, if this works, then it’s gonna be really easy.”

“We deserve some easy after yesterday, Blaine,” Kurt says and then he calls out: “Hey Janet.”

Janet appears. Blaine still jumps, even though he should’ve gotten used to it by now. “Yes, Kurt and Blaine?”

Kurt holds up the book and he shows Janet the two shapes. “Can you summon whatever those are supposed to be for us?”

“Of course,” Janet says and she holds out a small cactus and a book called What We Owe to Each Other by T.M. Scalon.

Kurt takes the objects out of Janet’s hand and Blaine asks: “What does all of this mean? What is the significance of these objects? Where are we?”

Janet smiles as brightly as ever. “I don’t know. I suggest-”

“I’m not going to kill you, Janet!” Blaine interrupts.

Kurt puts the book on the page and just like the fedora, it shrinks before it disappears into the page. Then he puts the small cactus on it as well. Kurt flips the page and he frowns when he sees three new words. It’s oddly specific.

“Teachers at Dalton?” Blaine reads out loud and there’s a hint of excitement in his voice.

Kurt nods and he turns to Janet, who’s still smiling.

“Janet, watch and learn,” he says as the words begin to grow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woah, livin’ on a prayer!
> 
> A little explanation here! The Good Place is a show that started on NBC in 2016 and its popularity grew in 2018. This story takes place at the end of season 5, somewhere middle or end 2014. This is why they’re completely unfamiliar with this setting. With other words, they’re gonna shit themselves when Rachel recommends this TV show to them in 2018, especially when they realise that a cactus and the book What We Owe Each Other both play a role.
> 
> As always, I don’t use the characters in crossover episodes, since they don’t exist. I only use the setting and every neighbourhood in The Good Place comes with its own Janet. So, the Janet from this chapter is not the Janet from the TV show, get it?


	13. Teachers at Dalton

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look at that, I am able to write shorter chapters! This one is 1,3K+ long. This prompt got suggested to me by Lauren, who, just like Verena, kindly suggested a couple of AUs for this story.
> 
> Speaking of AU suggestions, thank you to the people who’ve sent suggestions. I’ve seen some that I like. Now I only need to come up with a story for them.

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 13: Momentum**

**Dimension eleven: Teachers at Dalton**

* * *

There are three things in life that will always be there: death, taxes, and Dalton Academy.

When Blaine woke up, he was beyond excited to set foot in Dalton again, but Blaine soon found out that this Dalton looks like his school, but it is not his school.

There are unfamiliar buildings, unfamiliar names, and unfamiliar ‘houses’. Dalton never had houses.

It confuses the hell out of Blaine, because some parts are just like his school. The Warblers Room is the same and so are the senior commons, the majestic staircase, and the slow motion hallway, but apart from that, the entire school is different.

Students all walk around with a shield on the lapel of their blazers. They represent the three, or four, houses: Windsor, Stuart, Hanover, and the day students, also called Lancaster.

To make matters worse, Blaine’s the head teacher of Windsor House. Blaine’s literally never heard of this house and now he has to lead it.

Blaine had looked forward to being in Dalton, but now he just wants to get out of here. This place messes with his head.

He knows Kurt’s supposed to be here. If Blaine’s correct, they’re both teachers at Dalton. Blaine’s a Spanish teacher. He’d like to think that he’s a better Spanish teacher than Mr. Schue ever will be, but unfortunately for Blaine, his Spanish is limited. He knows some Spanish (not thanks to Mr. Schue) because his family in the Philippines know some Spanish, but he’s not fit to be a teacher.

* * *

His day at work has been absolutely terrible. He’s a terrible teacher and his students are all confused by his behaviour. Blaine even got an e-mail from Headmaster Gilbert, asking if he needs someone to talk to.

Blaine politely declined. How is he supposed to explain his lack of Spanish knowledge?

Because of his work day, Blaine didn’t have the time to go looking for the book or Kurt. He did find out that Kurt’s indeed a teacher here. He’s an economics teacher and he’s the head teacher of Stuart House. The reason Kurt wasn’t in the teacher’s lounge is simple: he’d called in sick.

The work day comes to an end and it ends with Blaine checking on Windsor House.

* * *

Windsor House is fucking madness.

In the beginning, Blaine was taken aback by the enormity of the dorm, but he was quickly shaken out of the state of wonder, because he heard an explosion.

That’s how he finds himself in Windsor house and it’s basically on fire. The weirdest thing is that all the students are completely calm about the situation.

Blaine orders them to calm down. It takes them almost an hour before it’s calm (sort of). The calmness doesn’t last long, because one student pushes another into the unlit fireplace. Blaine can feel a headache growing. Blaine helps the student up.

“Oh, Mr. A, there’s a compartment in the fireplace?” the student says.

Compartment in the fireplace?

Blaine crouches next to the fireplace and the student was right. He reaches out and he finds a box and a book. “Oh, this is interesting.”

* * *

There was a code on the side of the box, namely HDB 117. There were also keys and a book.

HDB 117 stands for Herman Dalton Building. Blaine has found a school map, since this version of Dalton is unknown to him. Since this Dalton is like a maze to Blaine, it takes him a while to find the building and to open the door.

Blaine enters the building and he finds himself in a large room with no windows. It’s very dark outside, but after a while, Blaine fights the light. He flicks the heavy switch and he hears a loud click before the yellow lamps curling from the pillars go on and then a large chandelier lights up as well.

This place is beautiful. He looks around in awe when he sees all the old portraits on the walls. Most of them are portraits of an entire class of boys. There are plaques underneath some of the portraits of a single person. There are ribbons in different colours in the frames: blue and gold for Windsor, red and white for Stuart, and gold and white for Hanover. There’s nothing grey for Lancaster, but there are also ribbons with the Dalton colours.

The entire hall is filled with cubby shelves. There seem to be endless rows of shelves, separated only by a middle aisle, some parts closed off in velvet rope. It’s some kind of archive and it is massive. The entire history of this version of Dalton is in this archive.

“Maybe the book is in here as well,” Blaine says to himself.

He wants to look around, but the class photos of all the Dalton boys catch his eyes. He wants to read it, but he doesn’t want to impose.

Yet there’s something inviting about the class photos.

Reading one paper can’t be bad.

Blaine takes a stack of paper from a shelf and he sees there are all letters. He reads a few and it captures him. They’re letters from the alumni. Blaine doesn’t know these people, but he can feel the emotion coming from the letters.

Blaine loses track of the time. It’s as if he’s stuck in the momentum. He’s been reading too long, it’s probably gone dark outside. Blaine makes himself stop, which is hard, because the letters are very moving. He puts the stack back on the shelf and he continues his way.

As expected, the book is lying in the archive, underneath a portrait of an old man. The plaque reads Oscar Thebold Brightman.

Blaine opens the book and as always, two new shapes have appeared. It’s not hard to figure out what they are: the pins on the lapels. Blaine suspects that one’s for Windsor and one’s for Stuart.

Suddenly, Blaine can hear footsteps.

“Who’s there?” Blaine calls out.

The footsteps are getting closer. “Blaine?”

“Kurt?” Blaine yells out. Kurt steps into the light. He looks very tired, but he’s also holding a box. Blaine runs towards him and he throws his arms around him. “I thought you called in sick!”

“I did,” Kurt says, and he does sound sick, “But I couldn’t sit by and wait. I had a ‘fuck it’ moment and I drove to, uhm, work. This is not our school.”

Blaine laughs and he shakes his head. “No, it isn’t.”

“And there are houses and I am a head of Stuart House? So, uhm, I found this box in our dorm room, which is huge, by the way, and I thought it’d be a great idea to check it out,” Kurt says. He looks around in awe. “Boy, am I glad I did. What is this place?”

“The history of this entire school,” Blaine answers.

“An archive?”

Blaine nods. “I also found the book.”

Kurt’s face lights up. “You did?”

“And we need a Windsor and a Stuart shield. How do we get those?”

Kurt is giving Blaine a real look. “Blaine, sweetheart, are you serious right now?”

Kurt takes Blaine’s hand and he places it on the lapel of his jacket. Blaine can feel a badge on Kurt’s jacket. Blaine uses his free hand to put feel if there’s something on his jacket.

“Oh.”

Kurt laughs. “You seriously never noticed?”

“I didn’t really pay attention to myself in the mirror this morning, because I had to go to work,” Blaine tells him, “Besides, I thought only students have to wear these.”

“Looks like the Kurt and Blaine from this dimension have a lot of house pride,” Kurt says and he unclips the shield from his jacket. Blaine does the same.

Kurt puts his shield on the page first. It’s a red shield crossed with white for Stuart House. Blaine follows suit and he puts his blue shield with a golden bar on the page as well.

This time, only one word appears, instead of three.

‘Royals’.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise? This was [Dalton ](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fanfiction.net%2Fs%2F6515261%2F1%2FDalton&t=MzU4ODJmMjBhYjdkY2QwY2MxOGQ0ZWMyOWZhZjc1ZDExM2FmYzRiYyxxdzBGU0h3VA%3D%3D&b=t%3A1_FbMVvKlyXyfeQlKE-AmQ&p=http%3A%2F%2Fforabeatofadrum.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F181085836713%2Fall-the-pretty-things-that-we-could-be-1324&m=0)by CP Coulter! Such a shame I decided to not write about the characters cause my boy Julian Alexander Talal Larson-Armstrong would have a blast messing these two around.


	14. Royals

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bam, it’s time for a _huishoudelijke mededeling_ , as the Dutch say. So far, I’ve updated every day and I love updating, but it’s time to set fanfic writing aside for now and focus on writing academic papers. Yup, yup, yup, university life is becoming prominent again. Since I have two deadlines next week, I will be focusing more on writing papers than on writing fanfiction (unfortunately).
> 
> This means that I have no idea what my updating schedule will look like for the next week. I’ve already been busy writing the papers and because of that, I have nothing new written for this story. I used to be two days in advance, but all that advancement is gone, because I have been writing papers (help me!).
> 
> A part of me wants to continue updating daily, but that means that I’ll have to chunk out 2K+ words each day, which is tiring, and I want writing to be fun. So instead of doing that, I will continue to enjoy writing this story, but there probably won’t be daily updates anymore. I don’t know what to expect of next week. Maybe I’ll get back on track easily, maybe I’ll update three times a day (probably not), maybe I’ll save everything for 2019 ( _probably not!_ ).
> 
> As always, thanks for reading.

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 14: Negligence**

**Dimension twelve: Royals**

* * *

Someone rings a bell and Kurt groans. The bed is too comfortable to get up.

“Get up, get up, today is the big day!”

“… dad?” Kurt reluctantly opens his eyes and his dad is standing in his room. He’s wearing regal clothing and there’s a lavish crown on his head.

Kurt is in a royal dimension, and he is the royal.

His dad looks like a king, so that makes Kurt the prince. His dad seems a bit impatient Kurt climbs out of his huge bed.

“Kurt, what did I tell you about oversleeping?” his dad says sternly, “You cannot oversleep on a day like this. The carriages will arrive soonly.”

“Uhm, yes father.”

Kurt’s not used to using such formal tone while speaking to his dad, but Kurt has to remind himself that this is not his dad. It seems impossible, but maybe they aren’t close in every dimension.

But then Burt Hummel smiles and he spreads his arms so that Kurt can hug him.

“I am so excited for you, kid,” he says and Kurt instantly feels better. He does have a good relationship with his dad. “You’re going to make it better for a lot of people. The moment you will marry the prince of Dalton, our two kingdoms will be reunited, and there will be peace.”

Kurt smiles at the thought of him marrying the prince of Dalton. So, he’s going to find Blaine, they’re going to find the book and the objects, and they can go on.

“I am really excited as well, dad,” Kurt says.

“Good, then you should get dressed, because the carriages to Dalton could get here any minute!”

* * *

Kurt’s never worn clothes this fancy before. He’s also wearing a crown. It’s not as lavish as his dad’s crown, but it is still beautifully decorated with a couple of sapphires and diamonds.

Kurt’s never met the prince of Dalton before, or they all think, so everyone shares story about the illustrious prince of Dalton during the trip.

“I hear he’s got a brave heart,” Carole says dreamingly, “He’s saved locals several times from criminals.”

“Well, I hear he’s the smartest prince Dalton’s ever seen,” Burt says, “He’s the main reason why there’s finally a chance at peace. He came up with the plan to marry Kurt.”

“I can’t wait till the war is over,” Carole sighs, “The kingdoms of McKinley and Dalton have been at war for so long. No one can even remember why there’s a war. It’s just always been there.”

“Not for long,” Burt pats Kurt on the back, “Kurt will save us all.”

His dad and Carole continue speaking highly about Blaine and Kurt is very excited. Apart from the superhero dimension, this will be the first time that he’ll be led to Blaine. There’s no need to go through an unnecessary searching period.

Since his dad insists on giving the horses enough rest, it takes them more than a day to arrive in Dalton. Kurt doesn’t like that he had to spend the night in this dimension, but it will all be worth it. They arrive at the palace in the morning.

There are soldiers greeting them and music is being played. Civilians are cheering for them and they’re waving when Kurt steps out of the carriage. It looks like everyone’s longing for peace.

The porters open the door of the castle. Kurt, Burt, and Carole enter the throne room and Kurt’s ready to greet Blaine, but…

“Welcome,” an unfamiliar man says and his wife bows.

The third person is not unfamiliar to Kurt. Sebastian Smythe is sitting between his parents and he’s wearing a crown. He stands up when he sees Kurt and he bows in front of him. He takes Kurt’s hand and he places a kiss on it.

It feels wrong.

 _Sebastian_ is the prince of Dalton, not Blaine.

This is very, _very_ wrong.

His parents greet the king and queen of Dalton and everyone celebrates the engagement. Sebastian smiles around Kurt and Kurt tries to smile back, to hold up an appearance, but he feels sick. He can’t be engaged to Sebastian. He simply can’t be!

Yet, Sebastian is wearing the crown.

Kurt gulps and thinks: _I have to find Blaine as soon as possible._

* * *

Sebastian leads Kurt around the castle, or as Sebastian calls it, Kurt’s future home. Kurt hasn’t been this eager to continue his dimension hopping since the apocalypse dimension. Kurt smiles politely and he answers Sebastian’s questions, so that he doesn’t raise suspicion.

Then again, he can’t imagine ever agreeing to this.

The castle is filled with people who bow when they see Kurt and Sebastian. Sebastian talks to some of them. At least Sebastian is not a dick in this dimension.

“Tomorrow, we’ll meet the staff,” Sebastian says, “But tonight we dine and we will celebrate our marriage and the peace.”

“Of course,” Kurt says.

“If you have any inquiries about the castle, just tell me,” Sebastian continues, “We’ll lead the Kingdom of Dalton with pride and joy, so I obviously want your input as well.”

“You do?” Kurt asks, genuinely surprised.

“Of course, my prince, after we wed, this will be your kingdom as well.”

“Hooray,” Kurt says softly and sarcastically. Sebastian doesn’t hear it.

Sebastian continues talking. “I know I maybe shouldn’t speak negatively about my parents, especially if they’re going to be your future in-laws, but the Kingdom of Dalton has suffered too much under their negligence. Our citizens have been rallying for peace for years and so has the Kingdom of McKinley. It took a marriage proposal to seal the deal. My parents weren't even the ones who came up with it, but our royal advisor Gilbert did.”

Sebastian takes Kurt’s hand.

“Now, my prince, accept that I am genuinely happy that you’re here and I would love to marry you, but we both know that we still have to get to know each other.”

Wow. Sebastian really isn’t a dick. Kurt can’t believe he found a dimension where Sebastian is a compassionate and caring man.

“Of course,” Kurt says and he waits for Sebastian to let go of his hand. Sebastian senses his discomfort, so he does.

“First, let me continue our tour!”

* * *

Kurt is an actor, so he can play the part of ‘part of a happy couple’ very well. Kurt and Sebastian will get married at the end of the week, but Kurt assumes he’ll be gone by then. He does feel some pity for the actual prince Kurt.

He even feels some pity for Sebastian. He watches Sebastian laugh and eat the royal meals, but after their conversations during the tour, he wonders if Sebastian wants this marriage in the first place.

His dad and Carole are talking to the king and queen of Dalton. Every once in a while, Burt looks over at Kurt, as if he’s asking if Kurt’s okay.

Kurt always smiles brightly when he does.

The evening ends, but the celebration throughout the kingdom doesn’t. The citizens of Dalton are really happy about the end of the war. It’s strange that no one knows what the war’s even about. This decades-long rivalry started so long ago, that it’s almost ingrained in people’s heads that they have to hate each other. It’s pitiful.

Burt and Carole retreat back to a private country home on the castle grounds and Kurt gets his own room. He’s happy that he doesn’t immediately have to share a bed with Sebastian.

Kurt’s not that happy about the fact that he has to spend _another_ night in this dimension, but he’s grown tired of the day. Kurt unpacks his belongings and he finds a dairy.

It’s his diary, but it also technically isn’t really his diary, so he feels bad about wanting to open it. Then again, this way he can finally get to know the Kurt from this dimension. That hasn’t happened before.

He pushes his doubt aside and he starts reading.

After a couple of pages in, Kurt realises that this Kurt is almost the same as him. This Kurt is only a little bit spoiled. The entries start to change when the engagement get announced. They’re very unhappy and they’re basically pleads for help.

The actual prince Kurt is as unhappy about his engagement to prince Sebastian as Kurt.

Kurt wishes he could help him. But what is he supposed to do? Steal a horse and go back to the Kingdom of McKinley? It’s impossible!

* * *

The stables of the castle are very badly lit. It’s probably to keep the horses asleep. Kurt has accidentally waken some with his lantern and they didn’t seem happy.

This is a terrible idea.

Kurt had gathered his belongings and he’d gotten dressed.

Now he’s actually in the stables and he once again reminds himself that this is a terrible idea. He’s never interfered with the lives of the other versions of him before. But then again, the Kurt from this version seems really unhappy.

He puts down his lantern. He finds a horse and he tries to set it free, so that he can run away, when he hears someone yell: “Freeze!”

Kurt turns around and Blaine is standing in front of him. His clothes are not as posh as Kurt’s, his curls are out, and he has his trusty bag with him.

Blaine lowers his lantern in shock. “Kurt?”

“Blaine!”

“What are you doing here?”

“What are _you_ doing here?”

“My parents are in charge of the castle’s horses. We’re staff. I know you are the prince, but again, what are you doing here in our stables?”

Blaine’s been here all along. He’s been so close by all this time.

“Why didn’t you come and look for me?” Kurt asks, trying not to be hurt.

Blaine shakes his head. “I wanted to, but I wasn’t allowed. But my parents told me that we’d be introduced to you tomorrow, so I decided to look for the book to pass the time. I just got back from the library and I heard someone in our stables. Again, why are you here?”

Blaine holds up his lantern and it lights up the room a bit more. Blaine’s eyes widen when he sees Kurt’s bag and the travel clothes.

“You’re running away?”

“If I’d known that you were here all along, I wouldn’t have even tried, but yes,” Kurt admits.

“Why?”

“Because the actual prince Kurt doesn’t want to marry Sebastian and I decided to help him out. Again, if I’d known you were here, I wouldn’t have even tried. I had hoped to find you in the Kingdom of McKinley.”

“… Kurt, this place is seriously called the Kingdom of Dalton. I thought it was obvious I’d be here.”

Kurt turns red from embarrassment. He hopes that the place is dark enough so that Blaine wouldn’t notice. Blaine is obviously right.

“But did you find the book?” Kurt asks, trying to change the subject.

Blaine gives Kurt the lantern and he opens his bag. Kurt can see that the book is in it.

“Yes!” he yells out and some of the horses make unhappy sounds, so Kurt immediately quiets down and says: “Sorry.”

“I also already put my object on the page,” Blaine says and he takes out the book. He flips it open and Kurt holds the lantern close to it.

“What is it?”

Blaine shrugs. “Some kind of dung fork, or whatever it is called. I woke up and the first thing I notice is my mom putting it in my hands, because I had to clean the stables. She kept yelling about how it had to be absolutely clean for the arrival of the prince of McKinley. That’s how I knew you’d be here. I expected it to be you.”

“I expected you to be the prince of Dalton, but I was gravely mistaken.”

“ _And we’ll never be royals_ ,” Blaine sings and Kurt hits him playfully.

“ _Royals_!” Kurt sings.

They laugh, until one of the horses makes some unhappy noises. The horses want to sleep.

“Yup, it was a bit of a shock to see Sebastian, wearing a crown, roam around the fields. Speaking of crowns…”

Blaine holds up the book again. It’s pretty obvious that the other object is Kurt’s crown. Kurt has left it in his room, as a sort of symbolic goodbye. That’s what happens in those royal movies. Now he regrets his decision.

Kurt tells him where to find the crown.

“Oh, can we sneak into the castle?” Blaine asks excitedly.

“It’s hardly sneaking in. It’s kind of my castle now.”

“Oh damn, you own a castle.”

The two of them go back to the castle and as expected, they can enter it without a hitch. The guards are a bit confused to see Kurt, since Kurt did have to sneak out, but they let him and Blaine in without questions.

Kurt leads Blaine through the majestic castle and Blaine’s in awe.

“You haven’t seen the inside? We’ve been in this dimension for almost three days.”

“I’m a stable boy, Kurt.”

Thanks to Sebastian’s tour, Kurt knows the way. They easily find Kurt’s room. The crown is lying on his bed, with a small note saying that Kurt’s sorry.

“That thing is gorgeous,” Blaine says and he carefully picks it up. Blaine’s mesmerised by the gemstones. “It’d almost be a shame to give it to the book.”

But Blaine hands it to Kurt anyway. Kurt opens the book and he’s ready to put the crown on the page, but he stops himself. He looks around. What if the actual prince Kurt returns when Kurt leaves? Kurt will trap the actual prince Kurt in this engagement. Even worse, what if the actual prince Kurt is found with the stable boy?

“We have to leave.”

“Yeah?” Blaine says as if it’s obvious, “That’s why we need the crown.”

“No, Blaine, we need to steal a horse and leave this castle immediately.”

Blaine frowns. “Are you suggesting we run away? Kurt, love, may I remind you of the fact that we’re leaving. This is not our dimension.”

“I know that,” Kurt says, a bit agitated, “But you should’ve read the diary, Blaine. I cannot leave the real prince Kurt here. I have to help him.”

“We don’t even know for sure if he comes back,” Blaine says.

Kurt nods. “I know, but I can try.”

* * *

They pass the guards with ease. Kurt tells them that he’s walking Blaine home. The guards recognise Blaine as a stable boy. Even if they do notice the travelling clothes and the bag hidden underneath his robe, they don’t say a word.

They keep silent. That way, no one notices that they’re not going to the Anderson’s cottage, but to the stables.

At least, that’s what they think.

“Kurt?”

Kurt turns around in shock. Blaine jumps behind him.

Kurt holds up his lantern.

“Dad?” Kurt asks.

His father is wearing a fancy pair of pyjama’s.

“Taking a stroll around the castle grounds, dad?” Kurt asks. After all, he and Carole has a private country home on the castle grounds. Kurt never tried to figure out where the country home was located, but apparently close to the stables.

His father looks at Kurt’s travelling clothes.

“Yes, I decided to walk around to clear my head, but you have bigger plans. You do know that I can see that someone’s hiding behind your back, right?”

Embarrassed, Blaine comes out of hiding.

“What are you doing, Kurt? Are you- are you running away?” his father asks, eyes wide.

Kurt and Blaine look at each other. It’s no use lying. It’s very clear that Kurt is indeed planning on running away, so Kurt takes Blaine’s hand.

“Yes, dad, I am leaving.”

“But what about the peace? What about prince Sebastian?!”

“Dad, you can’t honestly think this is a great idea?” Kurt asks, aghast. He knows this man isn’t really his father, but it is still a version of Burt Hummel, and Kurt strongly believes that his father is a great man in every dimension.

“Kurt-”

“Besides, prince Sebastian doesn’t like it either. You can see it. And he doesn’t need a husband to be a compassionate and great king. After all, he’s already a compassionate and great prince!”

Blaine looks at Kurt in confusion, but then again, he hasn’t met the Sebastian from this dimension, so Kurt complimenting Sebastian looks strange to him.

His father moves towards them and Blaine immediately steps in front of Kurt. Blaine, the protector, as always.

But to their surprise, Burt laughs.

“No worries, I’ll never hurt my son. What is your name?” he asks.

"Blaine," Blaine answers.

“Blaine, very nice to meet you. Now, I know a secret way out,” Burt says.

“We’ve got a plan,” Kurt says quickly.

“What, steal a horse, lower the bridge over the moat, and pass all the guards without raising suspicion?” his father asks.

When his father puts it into words like that, it does sound stupid. They hadn’t even thought about crossing the moat.

“Come on, I know a way out. Carole and I explored the grounds after dinner.”

Kurt and Blaine are still confused, but they follow Burt around the grounds. It’s a ten minute walk, but they arrive at the wall that closes off the castle from the rest of the kingdom. There’s indeed a secret passage in the wall.

“Uhm. Thanks, sire,” Blaine says awkwardly. He bows, but he realises how weird it feels and he freezes mid-bow.

Kurt is still confused. “Why are you helping me run away, dad? You arranged this engagement as well.”

His father sighs. “I suspected you were unhappy, but now I know for sure. Like I just told your partner, I’ll never hurt you. If you marrying Sebastian hurts you, then I will try to stop it. This is me trying to stop it.”

Kurt was right. His father really is amazing in every dimension. Kurt pulls his dad into a hug to say his goodbyes.

“I love you, dad.”

“Love you too, kid.”

Blaine awkwardly bows again and the two of them leave.

* * *

They don’t have a horse, like they planned, so the road back to McKinley is long. They won’t go all the way to the Kingdom of McKinley, though. They just want to get far enough. Hopefully, the Kurt and Blaine from this dimension will return and they will continue their journey to somewhere safe.

After hours of walking, they’re exhausted, but they find a spot where they feel safe.

Kurt opens the book and he puts the crown on the page. After it disappears, he flips the page. Once again, three new words have appeared.

“Huh, this is oddly specific as well,” he says and he shows the words to Blaine.

Blaine frowns. “What does ‘vacationers in Iceland’ even mean?”


	15. Vacationers in Iceland

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Academic papers are still kicking my ass, but I'm almost finished and after this, I will hopefully be free of qualitative research designs (please).
> 
> This AU is the second AU suggested by Verena. I suppose it was some kind of joke, like "haha imagine vacationers in Iceland" but I knew I had to write it. Challenge accepted! Speaking of suggestions, thanks again for your suggestions. I now have all the AUs I need.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't know a thing about Iceland, and I got all the information after some Google searches.

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 15: Orange**

**Dimension thirteen: Vacationers in Iceland**

* * *

“Blaine Devon Anderson, you disgust me sometimes.”

Blaine opens his eyes and Wes is standing next to his bed. “… what?”

“What did we say about shoes on in bed? It’s a terrible idea,” Wes says, but he’s smiling. Blaine yawns and he looks around. It looks like he’s in some kind of cabin with the other Warblers. There are bunk beds everywhere. It’s a bed and breakfast, or at least it looks like that.

After all, Blaine is supposed to be on vacation in Iceland. He assumes this is Iceland.

“Also, you know Gilbert doesn’t like shoes on in the hut,” David says.

Gilbert. Why does the name so familiar?

“Anyway, get dressed,” Trent say and he throws a woollen sweater towards Blaine, “Time for breakfast and then it’s time to continue exploring Iceland!”

* * *

Luckily for Blaine, his friends are all blabbermouths. They talk non-stop, so it doesn’t take long for Blaine to piece the story together. They’ve all decided to go to Iceland for vacation to celebrate their friendship. Iceland was chosen for its scenery and also because telling people that you’ve visited Iceland doesn’t happen often.

Blaine has no idea where exactly they are located in Iceland, but the scenery is breath-taking. It makes him want to visit Iceland in his own dimension. Kurt must be here as well and Blaine hopes he enjoys the view as much as Blaine does.

They visit town and eat omnom chocolate flavoured with Lakkrís and sea salt, and harðfiskur. Blaine decides to keep some of the chocolate for later. Blaine doesn’t drink alcohol, but Nick and Jeff share some beers bought from Vínbúðin. Blaine’s having a lot of fun. A part of him wants to continue his search for Kurt, but he’s enjoying himself. He hasn’t hung out with his friends like this in a while. Sure, he’s seen them in these past dimensions, but in his dimension, The Warblers are all scattered around the world. They need to have a small reunion soon.

He also learns that his woollen sweater is called a Lopapeysas, which has its roots in Icelandic independence. It’s grey with an orange patterned ring around the neck opening, and it’s very comfortable.

He’s almost sad when the day ends, but it makes him more focused. He’s had his fun, now it’s time to look for a way out.

The Warblers all go back to the cabin and the other Warblers are all talking about new guests arriving. New guests will apparently stay in the sleeping room next to theirs, so they’re all joking about the possible loud snoring.

When they get back to the cottage, Blaine can finally see it up close. It’s called ‘Gilbert’s place’.

“Who is Gilbert?” Blaine asks before he can stop himself. Wes frowns.

“He owns the cottage, remember?” he answers.

Blaine laughs shyly. “Oh, of course.”

* * *

Blaine has heard the name before. In fact, he’s heard it several times. Blaine needs something to write in, so he rummages through his bag.

The Sinnoh Region Guide Book from the Pokémon dimension is still in his bag. The others are distracted, so they don’t notice Blaine taking it out of his bag. He flips to the last couple of pages. There are rooms for notes about the Sinnoh region, but Blaine has other notes. Luckily, he still has a pen from class in his bag.

He writes down all the dimensions he’s seen. It’s more difficult than Blaine expected, since there’ve been twelve dimensions before this one. The order is also difficult to remember. Blaine puzzles with the thirteen dimensions for a while, but he manages to make a list of all of them from memory.

Then, he starts writing down all the times Blaine’s heard the name Gilbert in these past few days.

Santana and Wes both mentioned a General Gilbert in the space dimension, the other Ilvermorny students confused Blaine by talking about Headmaster Gilbert, Wes died trying to get to Gilbert’s Safe Haven, Gilbert was his manager in the famous dimension, and so on.

Blaine is shocked to find out that there’s a mention of a Gilbert in almost every dimension.

In fact, there are only a couple of dimensions without the mention of a Gilbert, namely the artist dimension, the The Good Place dimension, and the royals dimension. But maybe Kurt’s heard of someone named Gilbert in those dimensions.

Blaine writes down what he knows of the remaining dimensions and he notices a pattern. Gilbert is never seen in the dimensions, only mentioned. The reason he gets mentioned is because he plays some role in their lives in those dimensions.

It’s not the book, it’s not Kurt, but it’s something.

* * *

There’s a lot of noise in the hallways. The new vacationers have arrived. In the beginning, Blaine doesn’t pay much attention to them, but then he hears something.

“Oh my God, we have to share our showers with the other guests?”

“Yes, Rachel, this shouldn’t be a surprise to you, since you booked this place!” Santana does not sound amused.

The New Directions are here.

Blaine jumps of his bed and he runs to the hallways, ignoring the questions from the other Warblers. He looks around and he sees numerous New Directions members, including Kurt.

When their eyes meet, Kurt’s entire face lights up.

More notably, Kurt holds up the book.

Since they don’t know each other in this dimension, or it has to look that way, Blaine watches Kurt check in with the others. Blaine goes back to his shared room and he waits for an hour. He spends that hour writing more about this Gilbert. He doesn’t have many details, but there must be something.

After an hour, Blaine takes the Sinnoh Region Guide Book with him and he tells the others that he’s going to walk around and in the hallway, he and Kurt pretend to accidentally bump into each other. They start talking, and to others it looks like they’ve just met, but that’s not the case.

There’s some sort of common room. They sit down and they talk. Kurt has the book with him.

“Oh, I see you’re wearing a Lopapeysas,” Kurt says. Typical Kurt. He knows Icelandic clothing.

“You’re not,” Blaine points out, “They’re very comfortable.”

Kurt shrugs. “We just landed today and we spent our first day in Iceland travelling to this place. During our trip, I found the book in a souvenir shop of all places. It needed my plane ticket. How about you?”

Blaine tells Kurt about what he’s seen and how much he’s liked Iceland. Kurt listens actively and he sometimes comments. Blaine loves talking about Iceland, but he has more pressing matters.

“Kurt, does the name Gilbert ring any bell?”

Kurt shakes his head. “No, why?”

Blaine opens the Sinnoh Region Guide Book to the last few pages and Kurt quickly reminisces about the Pokémon dimension. Blaine shows Kurt the list.

“The name has appeared in almost every dimension,” Blaine says and he points towards the superhero dimension, “For example, he was the mayor of New York. Or here, in the private detective dimension, he was the missing person.”

Kurt reads the list and he furrows his brow. “What does this mean?”

Blaine shakes his head. “I have no idea, but I am right, aren’t I? The name keeps popping up. I only can’t recall hearing the names in the artist dimension, the The Good Place dimension, or the royals dimension.”

“I can,” Kurt says.

Blaine takes out his pen.

“I had the art exhibition at Gilbert’s Art Studio, and Janet told me that someone named Gilbert was the architect of the neigbourhood, and Sebastian mentioned his royal advisor Gilbert.”

Blaine writes it all down and his mind is reeling. What does this mean?

“And now we’re both in a cabin owned by someone named Gilbert,” Blaine says. Thirteen dimensions and thirteen times the name Gilbert.

“I propose we continue our adventure as soon as possible,” Kurt says and he opens the book, “Iceland can wait. When we’re both rich and famous, we can visit Iceland in our own dimension, but now we should go on.”

“I agree,” Blaine says and he closes the Sinnoh Region Guide Book.

Kurt shows Blaine the page. Kurt’s ticket is already shown underneath the words ‘Vacationers in Iceland’. Blaine recognizes the other object. It’s his leftover omnon chocolate. Such a shame that the books needs it, because Blaine planned it on saving for later.

Blaine goes back to his room to retrieve the chocolate. He tells the others that he’s met a guy, and they all start to encourage him to feed this guy chocolate.

“Be sensual, Blaine!” David yells out.

Blaine rolls his eyes. “I am never telling you guys anything. You’re even making chocolate a sensual thing.”

The others laugh and Blaine leaves. He’s going to miss his friends.

Kurt and Blaine take the book outside, so that the others won’t see them disappear and Blaine puts the chocolate on the page. Well, he takes a last bite first, but then he puts it on the page.

And okay, he feeds a piece to Kurt, but it’s not like what David had in mind.

The remaining chocolate disappears into the page and it reappears as an image. Two new words appear in the next page: Carry On.

“Reminder: look for Gilbert.”

“I will.”

The words start to grow and it’s time to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **FBI agent looking at my Google search history:** Ah, looks like she's going to Iceland soon, how great!


	16. Carry On

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whooh, it’s been a while. I had planned a story for this chapter but then I realised that it was all tied to the original plot of Carry On, and that plot is character driven. 
> 
> Simon Snow and Baz Pitch do not exist in this dimension.
> 
> Okay, then I decided to write something about the Humdrum. 
> 
> The Humdrum only exists because of Simon, and Simon does not exist in this dimension.
> 
> Okay, then I-
> 
> And the cycle goes on and I also realised that Carry On got published in 2015, so Kurt and Blaine don’t know if it. But here it is!

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 16: Pledge**

**Dimension fourteen: Carry On**

* * *

Rachel is singing Christmas carols at seven in the morning. Kurt throws his pillow at her.

Rachel huffs. “Well, well, well, if you don’t want to appreciate my talent, I’ll sneak into another dorm room.”

She has an English accent. Is he back at Hogwarts?

Kurt opens his eyes and Rachel is sitting on a bed. He looks around. Rachel is right. They’re in some kind of dorm room. There are two beds, a desk underneath the window, and two dressers. There’s also a small doorway to another room and Kurt assumes it’s the bathroom, because he can hear a shower running.

Kurt has absolutely no idea where he is. It looks like he’s once again in a setting of a movie or something, like the The Good Place or Harry Potter, but Kurt doesn’t recognise it. Just like The Good Place, Kurt hopes he’ll figure it out soon.

The two words were ‘Carry On’. What does that even mean?

Rachel crosses her arms. “Get ready, Kurt, breakfast’s soon.”

Rachel jumps off the bed and Kurt can see that she’s wearing a uniform. There’s a red jumper underneath a green blazer with white piping. She’s wearing a grey ruffled skirt, some white stockings, and very fancy shoes. Apart from the blazer, she looks like she came straight out of sophomore year of high school.

Whoever’s in the shower is done showering and Kurt takes that as a cue to shower. He looks around in his wardrobe and sure, there’s some fabulous clothing in it, but he guesses he has to settle for the awful uniform.

To his surprise, Mike leaves the bathroom. He’s rooming with Mike!

“Your turn,” he says. He also sounds British. Kurt’s absolutely sure that he will sound British as well. Just like Rachel, Mike’s wearing the uniform. It’s the same uniform as Rachel, except he’s wearing trousers and he also has a cape. Kurt thinks the cape is quite fabulous and he’s happy to see that he owns one as well.

He quickly showers and gets dressed. It’s time to face this dimension.

When he returns, Mike and Rachel are discussing Rachel sneaking into their dorm room.

“You will never figure out how I broke the gender barriers, Michael!” Rachel says proudly, “Mummers House is mine!”

“Oh come on, you know I want to see Tina more often in the Cloisters,” Mike says back, “Just tell me how you do it.”

Rachel shakes her head. “Never.”

* * *

Getting information without sounding suspicious is difficult, but Kurt manages to find out that he’s in another magical boarding school. It is named Watford and it’s home to the most powerful mages. Magic (or magick) works differently here. For instance, Kurt doesn’t own a wand. He owns a magickal bracelet. There are people who use wands, but it’s not a necessity.

Another difference is that spells are in English and not in Latin. Whoever created this dimension most love linguistics, because all magick is based on words and free speech.

There’s also another thing that Kurt’s noticed. There is some sense of magickal hierarchy and Kurt is not part of it. Neither are the other New Directions members.

There are a couple of mages who are part of the so-called Old Families. They have the power. Kurt thinks it’s a bit elitist, but it’s not his world. Luckily for him, Kurt’s not the only one who dislikes this power hierarchy.

At breakfast, Kurt sits with the other New Directions members, and they’re not very happy about the Old Families. Apparently, all the students belonging to the Old Families have a day off, because they need to go to some kind of Old Family meeting.

“They’re all hypocritical,” Mercedes says angrily, “They are elitist. Like, if you know them personally, some of them are pretty cool. For example, Trent Nixon? Nice bloke. David Thompson? Same. But their politics are just so small-minded.”

Trent and David are Warblers. Blaine is always found with The Warblers in these dimension. Blaine’s probably part of the Old Families, which would explain why Kurt hasn’t seen Blaine yet. He’s not at breakfast, because he’s not at school.

“You’d almost think that this guy who calls himself The Mage has a point,” Puck says before he takes a big bite out of his sweet cherry scone.

“Why did he start calling himself The Mage?” Santana rolls his eyes, “Everyone knows him as Gilbert the Lunatic anyway.”

Gilbert.

Kurt has to remember this.

“Look mates, I don’t fully agree with Gilbert or The Mage or whatever he wants to call himself either, but you’ve got to admit that the bloke has some points,” Mike shrugs with one shoulder and he pours himself more tea, “The World of Mages is unorganised. The Old Families have made power something you can inherit and it’s wrong. He can do us all a solid by getting rid of the power monopoly and then he can sod off.”

“I also can’t help but wonder why all the kids from the Old Families agree to this?”

“They’ve basically pledged their loyalties to their magickal heritage,” Tina says, “And they don’t question it. After all, they aren’t affected by the negative parts of it. They’re all gits.”

Rachel lets out a happy sigh. “The only good thing about the Old Family kids leaving for one day is that you can openly complain for once. Normally, they give you a stink-eye at least.”

Quinn nods and she turns to Kurt. “How about you? You’ve been silent all morning.”

“Oh, uhm…” Kurt looks around and he tries to come up with something. After all, he’s a NYADA student. He knows how to improvise. He’s done it several times in these past few dimensions. “I wonder what kind of things they’ll discuss during these Old Family meetings.”

Some laugh.

“Yeah, as if the Old Families are able of discussing things,” Sam says.

“They’re probably all holed up in The Anderson Mansion, drinking fine wine and eating delicious food, and pretending they’re working,” Brittany says, and Kurt’s never heard Brittany talk to fiercely.

Wait a second.

“The Anderson Mansion?”

“Obviously,” Artie says, “Where else would they go? From all the Old Families, The Andersons are the most influenceable.”

Unless Kurt’s wrong, Blaine is part of these Old Families, and Kurt now knows where to find him.

* * *

Watford has a library and Kurt finds some spell books. He knew the Harry Potter spells, but these are all new to him. He’s also looked around for the book, but it’s nowhere to be found.

To Kurt’s surprise, there are computers in the library. He finds the house of The Andersons on Google Maps and he figures out what public transport he has to take.

He goes back to his and Mike’s dorm room in Mummers House and he packs a bag. It’s going to be a long trip. It’s not hard to sneak out of the school. Just like the Hogwarts in the Harry Potter dimension, security is scarce. Kurt just hopes that the Kurt from this dimension will forgive him for cutting classes.

Kurt spends most of the train ride reading the spell books that he borrowed from the Watford library. He really likes how language plays a role in this dimension. There are TV quotes and song lyrics used as spells, but also simple phrases like **Answer me** become spells when you say them with magic.

He’d love to try some of the spells, but he’s surrounded by non-magickal people, or Normals, and even though mages and Normals aren’t segregated, Normals are unaware of magick.

After a long journey, he gets off at the nearest bus stop. It’s still a twenty minute walk to The Anderson Mansion.

It’s all worth it when Kurt first sets eyes on the building. For a moment, Kurt’s standing still, staring at it in awe. He’s seen loads of wonderful buildings in these past few days, but this one has to be one of the best. The Anderson Mansion looks like it comes straight from the Victorian ages.

He then realises that he hasn’t thought this through. What is he supposed to do now? Just knock?

Kurt doesn’t come up with another plan, so he uses one of the door knob knockers. A maid opens the door and she frowns when she sees him.

“Hello, who are you and do you have business here?” she asks somewhat rudely.

“Yeah, hi, I’m looking for Blaine Anderson? Is he here?”

“This is The Anderson Mansion,” the maid deadpans.

Kurt tries not to roll his eyes. “So he’s here. Can I see him?”

“I’m afraid young mister Anderson is busy right now,” the maid says and she starts to close the door. Extremely rude.

“I’m a friend from school and I’ve travelled all this way to see him!” Kurt says. He’s slowly losing his patience with this woman.

The maid eyes his Watford costume, but she still doesn’t seem happy. “All his friends are already here,” she says, “Now, please leave.”

“Tell him Kurt Hummel’s at the door.” Kurt pushes the door open.

The maid sighs in annoyance, but she realises that Kurt’s not leaving voluntarily. She holds up a finger in a ‘one moment’ way and she leaves. Kurt waits for a few seconds. The maid returns with Blaine in tow. He looks very fancy.

“Kurt!” he exclaims.

“Well hello, young master Anderson,” Kurt says teasingly.

“Please don’t call me that. In fact, I even keep telling Vera not to call me that,” Blaine says to the maid.

The maid, or Vera, shrugs. “It’s my duty.”

Vera still gives Kurt a nasty look, but she can’t be openly rude in front of Blaine. Kurt enjoys watching her fume silently. He doesn’t understand why Vera doesn’t like him, but he couldn’t care less.

Blaine dismisses her and he gestures towards Kurt to follow him upstairs.

“Where are we going?”

“My room.”

“Shouldn’t you be in a meeting?”

“They won’t miss me.”

Blaine’s room is, simply put, creepy. The Anderson Mansion looks like it comes out of the Victorian ages, but Blaine’s room looks like it comes from some sort of thriller novel. It’s dark and wooden and there are gargoyles carved in Blaine’s bed.

The room is huge. It even has its own living area, with a beautiful sofa in front of a fireplace. Kurt hears Blaine say **_“Some like it hot”_** and the fireplace is lit. Kurt can’t see Blaine’s magical object. Blaine turns around to face Kurt.

“Spells are really cool in this dimension,” he says.

Kurt nods in agreement.

“How did you find me?” Blaine asks, “I live here and I don’t even know where ‘here’ is.”

Kurt tells Blaine everything he knows. He tells him about Watford and the Old Families and how Brittany and Artie mentioned The Anderson Mansion. He tells Blaine that he’s travelled for hours to get here, since Blaine isn’t at school.

He also tells Blaine about Gilbert the Lunatic, or The Mage. Blaine writes it down in the Sinnoh Region Guide Book.

“Yeah, the Old Families,” Blaine sighs and he closes the Sinnoh Region Guide Book, “It’s weird. All my friends are great lads but they’re also a bit pretentious in this dimension. I dunno what this whole Old Family bullshit is, but I was quite surprised to see Cooper and my dad. I haven’t seen dad in ages.”

“And your mother?”

Blaine shrugs nonchalantly, but Kurt knows better. “Mum’s not here. Looks like my parents got divorced in every dimension. Turns out mum didn’t like this whole Old Family agenda and neither do I. Today’s been weird. We’re all here for some sort of meeting, but we aren’t discussing a thing. We’re just having some sort of dinner party. I got out of school for it, but I wish I were in school. I dunno Watford, but it sure must beat listening to all of this crap. I haven’t even gotten the time to look for you or the book, cause everyone wants to talk about fancy schmancy things.”

“I’ve looked for the book at the Watford library, but I couldn’t find it,” Kurt says.

“Well, then it’s probably somewhere in the house.”

“In the house?”

“Yeah, apparently we have our own private library. I haven’t seen all of the house yet, since I’ve been busy and it’s huge, but the moment you arrived on my doorstep, I stopped caring about pleasing the Old Families. Again, they won’t miss me.”

“Then let’s look around!”

Blaine nods eagerly. Then he holds up a medallion and he says **_“Make a wish”_**.

The fireplace dies out.

* * *

Blaine has used a spell called **_“Be our guest”_** on Kurt, which makes it impossible for anyone to hurt Kurt while he’s here. Kurt thinks it’s a bit ridiculous, but according to Blaine, the Old Families don’t like people outside the Old Families very much.

While they walk around the gigantic house, Blaine tells Kurt about the medallion.

“So, I find out that we’re in another magical dimension, or magickal as they call it, and that I don’t own a wand. Instead, my magic gets channelled through this medallion. It’s supposed to hang around my neck, but the me from this dimension did not like that. Dunno why, though, but he added some sort of pocket to the sleeves of all his clothes, so that he could put the medallion in it.”

“The you from this dimension sounds very weird.”

Blaine nods in agreement.

“Since the book wanted our wands from the Harry Potter dimension, I am guessing it needs our magickal objects from this dimension.”

They walk around the house for a while but they eventually find the library. It’s not as big as the Watford library, but it’s still huge.

Blaine looks around in defeat. Not only is the library huge, but it’s also badly lit. This entire house has this weird gothic interior vibe going on, which apparently means that all rooms have to be badly lit. There is a spell called **Let there be light** , but it only turns on the existing lights, so it’s useless.

But Kurt’s spent hours reading spell books, so he knows what to do. He raises his arm with the bracelet and he says: **_“Come out, come out, wherever you are!”_**

This is also how he managed to check the entire Watford library with ease.

As expected, the book comes flying out of one of the bookshelves.

“I love magick,” Blaine says when he watches how Kurt catches the book, “This spell is way more specific than _accio_ , because you need the book title for _accio_.”

Kurt puts the book on a table and he flips it open to the right place. Blaine was right: the book clearly wants Kurt’s bracelet and Blaine’s medallion.

“Well, let’s do it before my dad comes looking for us,” Blaine says. He takes the medallion out of his sleeve and he puts it on the page. Kurt follows suit by putting his bracelet on the page.

“I am definitely going to miss this magick system, though,” he says sadly as he watches his bracelet disappear.

“Yeah, me too.”

Blaine flips the page and both Kurt and Blaine do a double take when they see the two new words.

‘Life swap’.


	17. Life swap

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so, the Klaine Advent 2018 comes to an end.
> 
> Well, not for me though. I still have a couple of chapters to go, but the official Klaine Advent is over and I want to thank all the people behind it for their amazing work. To ‘celebrate’ another succesful advent I give you a double update.
> 
> (That, and I was writing chapter 17 and 18 at the same time, and I finished 18 before 17.)
> 
> Papers have all been handed in, but I still don’t have time to write all the time. After all, it’s Christmas time! Happy holidays!

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 17: Quantity**

**Dimension fifteen: Life swap**

* * *

It’s been a while since Blaine was this weirded out about the dimension hopping. After seeing 14 other dimensions, Blaine’s sort of gotten used to the dimension hopping. Gone are the days of worry and confusion.

Okay, confusion still happens, since Blaine’s always confused when he has to figure out where he is, but he’s no longer really worried about him and Kurt having to find each other, the book, and two objects. Been there, done that. It always works out.

So yeah, it’s really been a while since Blaine was this weirded out. It doesn’t happen every day that you wake up in a world where everyone thinks you're Kurt Hummel.

Blaine knows he’s in a dimension where their lives have swapped, but he’d expected something different. He’d expected to wake up in Kurt’s body, but that didn’t happen. He’s still Blaine, but everyone else just thinks he’s Kurt, so they call him Kurt. He’s living Kurt’s life. He’d also expected Kurt to be lying next to him. After all, they only swapped lives.

But in this life swapped dimension, Kurt and Blaine don’t know each other.

Apart from, well, Blaine being Kurt, the life of this Kurt is similar to Kurt’s. There are only some slight changes. Kurt Hummel lives in New York with Rachel Berry and Santana Lopez, so Rachel and Santana haven’t moved out. Kurt is a NYADA student, but he focuses more on scriptwriting than acting. Kurt has a part-time job at the Spotlight Diner, but Rachel and Santana work in a coffee shop.

And Kurt is single.

Blaine (or Kurt, this is confusing) is nowhere to be seen. There are no photo’s of the two of them on the wall. Blaine (or Kurt) isn’t in his phone contacts.

Kurt and Blaine once again don’t know each other. It really weirds Blaine out.

* * *

Blaine (or Kurt, really, this is confusing) has a crazy busy life. Blaine wants to look for Kurt, but he can’t. They’re in the middle of a school week, so Blaine makes himself go to NYADA. He doesn’t run into Kurt there. Maybe it’s because the Kurt from this dimension follows more scriptwriting courses.

Back home, he wants to start his search, but then he sees that he has a shift at the Spotlight Diner. He doesn’t want to mess up Kurt’s (or Blaine’s?) life in this dimension, so he goes to work as well.

Once again, there’s been a small change. Günther doesn’t own the Spotlight Diner. A man named Gilbert does. Gilbert is not at the diner, so Blaine can’t see him, but there's once again is a mysterious man named Gilbert. He writes it down in the Sinnoh Region Guide Book during his break.

By the time his shift ends, it’s gone dark and Blaine’s tired, moody and annoyed.

Like Kurt is on most days.

On his way back to the loft, Blaine starts to realise that Kurt’s really this busy. Blaine’s fairly busy as well. After all, they’re both full-time students, but Blaine doesn’t have an additional job. Okay, he sometimes gives piano lessons to snooty kids of New Yorkers, but it’s not the same as dealing with annoying customers in an overcrowded diner.

And to think that Kurt originally planned on continuing his internship at Vogue on the side.

Wow. Kurt’s done a lot.

After going through this day, Blaine can understand why Kurt’s cranky. It still doesn’t really excuse him snapping and picking fights over the smallest things, but it sure explains it.

Blaine had never thought about it.

When he comes home, Rachel’s sitting on the couch with an iPad.

“Busy day, Kurt?” she asks.

“Oh Rach, you have no idea.”

* * *

Blaine needed that good night of sleep. After all, it’s a new day and it’s a new day of NYADA. Luckily, he doesn’t have many classes this day. To make it even better, he has no shift at the Spotlight Diner, so he can fully devote his time to finding Kurt. He’s already asked around at school and some people recognise the name Blaine Anderson, but they never really know him or where to find him.

There have been subtle changes to Kurt’s (or Blaine’s) life in this dimension, so Blaine guesses that his life (or Kurt’s) has been changed in some ways as well. This makes it more difficult to find Kurt than originally anticipated. Blaine can go to his usual spots, but there's a chance that Kurt won’t be there.

He’s already looked Kurt (or Blaine) up on Facebook and Kurt’s face appeared next to Blaine's name, but the Blaine from this dimension is as inactive on Facebook as Blaine himself.

Blaine spends the rest of the day looking for Kurt or the book, but he has no such luck. It’s his life, it shouldn’t be this hard.

Another day passes like this.

When he gets back to the loft, Santana and Dani are on the couch. Dani’s appearance surprises Blaine.

“You look moody,” Santana says when she sees him, “Or do you just want to get laid?”

“Both,” Blaine answers.

Santana whistles. “You’re still holding out for your one true love, Kurt? Or do you want to bend the rules for now and hit the club with us?”

Blaine considers it. Maybe there’s a slight chance that Kurt will be there.

But he’s very tired after walking through the city, going from familiar spot to familiar spot, for an entire day. He just wishes it could be easier.

“Can’t we help you find your true love?” Dani suggests. It doesn’t look like she has an ulterior motive, and Blaine realises he’s really missed Dani. He knows the Dani from his dimension has a new girlfriend, but maybe Blaine should reach out.

“Does the name Blaine Anderson ring a bell?”

But Dani shakes her head and Santana laughs.

“You’ve got someone?” she says, “Hummel, what are you waiting for? Go get him!”

“Oh, I wish I could,” Blaine sighs sadly.

* * *

It’s the third day in this dimension. He hopes he won’t have to stay for another night. He doesn’t want to beat the record. He’s spent three days in the Pokémon dimension and now he’s going to start his third day in this dimension. It’s about quality, not quantity, but so far he hasn’t enjoyed his stay in this dimension.

Kurt’s life is hard.

It’s the weekend, so there will be no classes. He does have a shift, though.

So in the afternoon, he goes back to work. His colleagues greet him and Blaine says hi, but he doesn’t know anyone here now that Rachel and Santana work somewhere else.

It’s a slow day, so when Blaine hears the bell above the door signalling that new people have entered, he doesn’t really bother to look up.

But just as he wants to bring the dirty dishes back to the kitchen, he sees Kurt and The Warblers entering the Spotlight Diner.

Blaine knows he should feel relieved, but he’s just gaping at Kurt. Then Blaine starts laughing. Kurt looks absolutely ridiculous, dressed as Blaine. Kurt wears a brightly coloured polo with a striped bowtie, red pants that don’t cover his ankles, boat shoes, and no socks.

Sure, Blaine likes this fashion style -after all, it’s his- but it doesn’t suit Kurt at all. Just like Kurt’s style doesn’t suit Blaine. Blaine’s been dressing as Kurt for the past few days and he looks weird.

Blaine’s laughter reaches Kurt. Kurt looks up and he seems relieved. The other Warblers start whispering.

They sit down in Blaine’s section. Blaine quickly drops the dishes in the dishwasher section and he hurries back inside. He can hear The Warblers talk.

“Oh, look at his face!” David laughs.

“Cute Waiter finally looked at you, Blaine,” Wes says.

“Are you finally gonna make a move, dude?” Nick says as well, “You’ve been dragging us to this diner for ages and we’re kinda over it. Just talk to him.”

Blaine smiles. The Kurt (or Blaine, this is still weird) from this dimension has an unrequited crush on him. Or is it unrequited? Maybe the Blaine (or, well, Kurt) hasn’t noticed him, like Wes suggested.

Blaine takes a deep breath. After all, they aren’t supposed to know each other. He takes out his note block and he approaches the table.

“Good afternoon, welcome to the Spotlight Diner. My name is Bl-Kurt-” Kurt tries to hide his smile at the mishap “- and I will be your waiter today.”

The Warblers all place their orders, putting Kurt last.

Kurt turns red, but then he says: “I’d like to order one date with you.”

“Yes!” Blaine says, too eagerly. The other Warblers hoot and cheer, and other people are looking at them, but Blaine doesn’t care.

Kurt turns even redder, but he also looks really happy. “I’m Blaine.”

“Kurt,” Blaine says and the two of them really try their hardest not to laugh. This whole situation is ridiculous.

“ _So_ ,” Wes says after some silence, “That date?”

“I get off at seven,” Blaine says. It’s a long wait, but he knows Kurt will be there.

* * *

Kurt and the other Warblers leave after two hours, but Kurt promises he’ll be back at seven. Blaine knows it’s true.

The rest of the shift is uneventful, but Blaine doesn’t care. He’s incredibly happy and his colleagues notice the happy mood he’s in. Blaine’s even sung some happy songs on the piano. After all, he’s a singing waiter.

At seven, he spots Kurt outside. Not only that, but he’s also holding the book.

Blaine leaves as soon as possible.

“Hi,” he says as he opens the door to go outside.

“Hi,” Kurt says back and he holds up the book, “Guess what I found while killing some time?”

“Where’d you find it?” Blaine asks in amazement.

“The library,” Kurt answers, “Are you ready to go?”

Blaine hasn’t even considered the library, but that’s because he gets a really bad feeling every time he passes the New York Public Library. He’s walked past it several times, and it reminds him of all the people who’ve died in there because Blaine couldn’t save them.

He knows it’s a different New York Public Library in a different dimension, but he thinks he’ll never be able to set a foot in whatever version of that library.

Good thing Kurt can still do it.

They walk to the loft and they share their crazy stories.

“Right, so, you live together with Wes,” Kurt says, “Or technically I do. I don’t know, this is weird. You actually major in dance at NYADA so I got some great calves in this dimension. But uhm, you graduated from Dalton, so that’s why we don’t know each other.”

“Your life is crazy busy, Kurt!”

Kurt snorts. “Oh I know. When we get back home, I’m trying to cut myself some slack.”

Blaine knows that Kurt has put a lot of thought in that decision, so he drops the subject. Instead, he starts talking about all the weird stuff he’s seen at NYADA as someone who majors in script writing.

They get home and they have the loft to themselves, since Rachel and Santana are at work.

Kurt puts the book on the coffee table and he flips it to the right page. He laughs when he sees the two outlines of shapes.

“What is it?” Blaine asks.

Kurt holds up the book. It clearly needs an ascot and a bowtie. Kurt immediately unties his bowtie. Blaine’s wearing his Spotlight Diner outfit, but he has worn ascots in the past few days. He’s worn a light blue one the most, so he takes it out of his closet and he puts it on the page as well.

It’s time to finally leave. It’s been too long.

Both Kurt and Blaine are shocked when not one, or two, or three, but _four_ new words start appearing, and they’re also strangely specific.

“Fashion designer and model?” Kurt reads out loud.

“Sounds fun.”


	18. Fashion designer and model

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This AU is the second AU suggested by Lauren!
> 
> Also, question, has anyone already guessed the song that gave me the title of this fic?

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 18: Realism**

**Dimension sixteen: Fashion designer and model**

* * *

When Kurt wakes up, he’s once again in another unfamiliar bedroom. He’s used to it now. This bedroom reminds him of the one from the artist dimension, since it’s quite lavish for someone his age. He yawns, gets out of bed, and draws the curtain.

He expects to see New York, but oh no, it’s not New York. Kurt has seen this view in movies and postcards. He’s in Los Angeles.

He’s never been in Los Angeles. It is so sunny! It’s a big contrast to New York, where it’s cold this time of you year.

Kurt opens his closet and he loves the summer aesthetic. He gets dressed and he leaves the bedroom. He has a strange feeling of déjà vu to the artist dimension when he sees that one part of his house is inhabitable and the other part seems like some sort of studio.

Kurt is a fashion designer.

Not only that, but he’s a great fashion designer. Magazine covers with his face are hung on the wall. Mannequins with different clothes are positioned around the studio part of the house. Kurt walks towards them to touch the clothing, _his clothing_ , and the smooth fabric feels amazing.

Kurt doesn’t regret choosing NYADA and acting over fashion. It’s where his heart and passion lie, but oh God, he loves fashion. Maybe later, when he’s a rich and successful Broadway star, he’ll be able to do it on the side. Right now, it’s a hobby, although he hasn’t had the time to do fashion lately.

His phone beeps, pulling Kurt out of his thoughts. It’s his agenda reminding him of a photoshoot that will take place later today. His clothes are going to be photographed and Kurt definitely wants to see it.

Maybe he’ll find Blaine. After all, one of them has to be the model.

* * *

Rachel is his assistant.

The Rachel from his dimension is going to flip when she finds out. (Not that Kurt’s ever going to tell her about this dimension hopping, since she probably won’t believe him).

Rachel is his assistant, Artie is the photographer and director, Mike is in charge of tech and lights, Brittany designed the sets, Mercedes is in charge of the hair and make-up department, Tina and Sam help with the dressing of the models, and Kurt is the designer.

And he’s the boss. He soon finds out that he didn’t book this place, but this is all his own.

Rachel is a very annoying assistant, though. She keeps interrupting the conversations between Kurt and Artie, since Rachel believes her creative vision is much better. The Rachel from this dimension still wears reindeer sweaters, so it’s probably not true.

Kurt can’t imagine he never gave Rachel the makeover in this dimension, but it is what it is.

At one point, Kurt snaps. But he has a plan.

“We’re going for realism and minimalism here to show contrast between the set and your extravagant designs!” Artie says and he makes big hand gestures, “That was your plan, Kurt. This isn’t impressionism, or post-modernism, or Dadaism. No! Our vision for this shoot is-”

“Actually, impressionism has more emotional depth,” Rachel cuts him off.

“Rachel,” Kurt says, trying not to sound too irritated, “I have a very important task for you, but please shut up!”

At the words ‘important task’, Rachel pipes up. “Task, what task?”

“It’s for a protentional new client,” Kurt lies easily, “I can’t tell you much, since they want to keep it under wraps, but they require me to own a certain book. Find it for me, but don’t open it, okay?”

Kurt describes the book and Rachel even takes notes. Then she leaves to scour basically all of Los Angeles to find the book. That’ll keep her busy.

Artie shoots him a thankful look.

“Now, when will the models arrive?” Kurt asks, eager to find out how to get to Blaine.

“Soon. As you can see, Mike and Brittany are helping with setting up the set right now. The first models will come in and they’ll see Mercedes immediately to discuss the plans and then they’ll get sent to you, Tina, and Sam. Did the catering come on time?”

Kurt nods. He’s happy to find out that the Kurt from this dimension wants to keep his employees and models well-fed.

Artie then says: “Oh and don’t forget to send a thank you message to Gilbert!”

“Excuse me?” Kurt says. Gilbert? Kurt’s found him again.

“You know, for arranging this shoot. It’s a real honour to work with him,” Artie says.

Kurt nods. Artie rolls away to discuss some things with Mike and Brittany and Kurt takes out a sketchpad out of his bag. In this dimension, he always carries small sketchpads with him. He writes down ‘Gilbert arranged the shoot’, so that he can show it to Blaine later when he shows up.

* * *

If he shows up.

It’s a chaos. One of the models is late. Someone from the modelling agency is on the phone and the other models, who happen to be The Warblers, look anxious. They’ve already gone through hair and make up and everything is set up, but the last model is late.

The person of the modelling agency hangs up their phone and when they see Kurt. They start apologising profusely.

“We’re so sorry, Mr. Hummel. This usually doesn’t happen!” they say desperately, “It’s an honour that you chose the Dalton Model Agency for this shoot and Mr. Anderson usually isn’t this lacklustre. He’s on his way.”

Kurt and Artie rearrange some aspects of the shoot and they start without Blaine. He won’t be in the first few group photos and they’ll have to photoshop him in later. Kurt tries to focus, but he can’t stop thinking about Blaine. The person from the modelling agency is furious at him. Hopefully the career of the Blaine from this dimension isn’t ruined now. Kurt is a high-profile designer, so this shoot is big.

Almost one and a half hour later, Blaine’s being escorted in by a guard. “Sorry!” he yells out, “Commute was terrible.”

“No excuses,” Artie yells before Kurt has the chance to say anything, “Hair and make-up now!”

The person from the modelling agency basically pushes Blaine towards Mercedes.

Kurt will have to talk to him later, then. At least he’s here, so Kurt can focus better.

* * *

The person from the modelling agency is not happy at all. They’re yelling angrily at Blaine. Blaine looks very embarrassed and the other models are speechless.

“This won’t happen next time, Mx,” Blaine says.

“There might not be a next time!” they yell back, “Now, get to work!”

The other models exchange some worried glances.

“Actually,” Kurt says loudly, “Can I speak to Mr. Anderson? In private?”

The person from the modelling agency and the others looks even more worried. They’re probably all thinking that Blaine is going to be yelled at by a high-profile designer. Blaine doesn’t seem worried, though, but that’s because he knows that’s not going to happen.

Blaine nods and Kurt gestures to him to follow him. Behind the crafts table, there’s a door to a small meeting room. It’s currently filled with old set pieces and there are photos of the designs taped to the wall. Blaine follows Kurt to it and when Kurt shuts the door behind them, they both crack a smile.

“Wow, I can’t remember the last time I was that nervous,” Blaine sighs.

“Apparently, wearing my clothes is a big deal,” Kurt says with a hint of pride.

“Congrats, love,” Blaine says and he gives Kurt a small peck on the lips.

“Why were you late, though?”

“Snoozed the alarm,” Blaine shrugs, “That sort of thing.” Then his eyes widen. “Oh my God, did I just ruin my career? Or the career of the Blaine from this dimension?”

Blaine looks freaked out and Kurt wraps his arms around him. He knows that Blaine hates letting people down and right now, Blaine’s feeling like he’s let the Blaine from this dimension down by making a very common mistake.

At moments like this, Kurt again wishes that Blaine wouldn’t beat himself up over all the small things, but by now he knows it won’t happen.

Then again, this can ruin Blaine’s career.

“I’ll leave a note behind for Kurt to tell him to recommend you or something,” he says.

“How’s that going to work? They don’t even know each other.”

That’s still weird to Kurt, but since it’s Kurt’s handwriting, maybe the Kurt from this dimension will think he’s written it himself. Kurt can try.

Holding him, Kurt is aware of the fact that they haven’t really had time to themselves these past few days. They want to get back home as soon as possible, which means hopping to the next dimension the minute they find the book, but it also means that they haven’t kissed in days except for that small kiss.

“It’s all going to be fine,” Kurt says, “I am your boss now. I will make sure they won’t fire you.”

He waits for Blaine to calm down and then he kisses him. In the beginning, Blaine’s a bit taken aback, since they really haven’t kissed in a while, but then he pulls Kurt closer. He ruffles his hand through Kurt’s hair, which is usually not-done, but Kurt allows it for now.

Kurt pushes him against the wall and he slowly starts to untie the tie Blaine’s wearing (the one Kurt designed) when suddenly, the door bangs open.

Blaine looks away and Kurt stares at Rachel, who’s standing in the doorway, holding the book. He’d completely forgotten about that.

“Oh.” Rachel looks at Kurt. “My.” Then at Blaine. “Jewish.” Then she sees Kurt’s hair. “God.” She says when she sees Blaine’s tie in Kurt’s hands.

“Rachel!” Kurt says in a high pitched voice. He looks behind her. Apart from Rachel, no one has seen a thing. God, this must look weird to her. Kurt’s hooking up with one of his models in an empty meeting room.

Rachel’s staring, but she holds out the book. “I found it in The Wallis. Kurt, oh my God!”

Kurt straightens his shirt, he gives the tie back to Blaine and he attempts to make his hair look more decent before he takes the book out of Rachel’s grip. “Uh, thank you so much, Rachel.”

Rachel nods shortly. “I’ll, uhm, leave you to it, then.”

“Yes,” Kurt says awkwardly and Blaine coughs behind him.

“Well. Okay.”

Rachel turns around to leave, but before she does, she looks back and Kurt can see a crooked smile on her face. “Well done, boss.”

Rachel shuts the door behind her and Kurt turns red.

“Uhm, care to continue?” Blaine says, “After all, she already thinks we’re making out in here.”

Kurt locks the door.

* * *

Kurt really wants to see how the shoot continues, so they decide to wait with opening the book. They put it in Blaine’s bag. Blaine also writes down the new Gilbert situation in the Sinnoh Region Guide Book.

Except for Rachel, no one seems to suspect a thing. In fact, many are still under the impression that Kurt spent all that time yelling at Blaine. To better Blaine’s chances at keeping his career, Kurt makes an effort to be extra nice and positive about Blaine. Rachel thinks she knows that’s going on, so she keeps shooting knowing looks.

Judging by the look on Tina's face, she did notice that Blaine’s clothes got a bit rumpled, but even if she did think it was suspicious, she remained silent.

The shoot goes on for a couple more hours and Blaine looks absolutely stunning in Kurt’s clothes. Surely, Kurt didn’t really design them himself, since the Kurt from this dimension did it, but it’s Kurt’s taste. It feels like it is his work.

All things must end. After all the clothes have been given back, the models slowly start to leave and so does the crew. Kurt and Blaine go back to the meeting room. Rachel whistles, but no one notices.

In the meeting room, Kurt opens the book.

“… That’s the tie,” Blaine says when he sees the outline.

“We just gave it back to Tina and Sam,” Kurt’s shoulders slump.

“Yeah, but the clothes are still in the building. You owe the place.”

He asks Rachel to retrieve it for him. She might think they have a different usage for it, but Kurt doesn’t care. He’s about to leave anyway, so Rachel’s opinions won’t bother him anymore.

Meanwhile, Blaine’s staring at the second outline.

“What is this supposed to be?” he asks.

But luckily for them, Kurt does recognise it. There are set pieces littered around the meeting room and one of them belongs to the book. He likes that he now has a reminder of the wonderful set.

Kurt waits for Rachel to return with the tie, since he doesn’t want her seeing the objects disappear into the page. They don’t have to wait long.

Rachel gives them one last look before she loudly announces that she’s going home.

Blaine finds a piece of paper and a pen for Kurt, so that Kurt can write a note to the Kurt from this dimension, ‘explaining’ the missing tie, the new protentional client (it fell through) and Blaine’s behaviour.

Then it’s time to put the objects on the page.

Blaine laughs when he sees the new words.

“The Sims. I like The Sims!”


	19. The Sims

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember when I said I wasn’t going to save everything till 2019? Well, happy new year!
> 
> This chapter took a long time since I was a bit ill (2018 went out with a bang!) and because this chapter is a bit silly. Because of the silliness, don’t really be alarmed by this:
> 
> _TW: Fire_
> 
> You can see the end notes for more information.

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 19: Stay**

**Dimension seventeen: The Sims**

* * *

Blaine has played a lot of The Sims.

Namely, The Sims.

The Sims 2 (aka the best).

The Sims 3.

Heck, even MySims.

That’s why he’s very confused when he walks around the neighbourhood. He’s never seen this place. When Blaine woke up, he looked outside of his window and he saw a beautiful big city which seemed to be a fusion between big American and Asian cities.

There hasn’t been a neighbourhood like this in the games before.

Blaine knows there’s one logical explanation: he’s in The Sims 4. He knows that The Sims 4 recently got released, but he’s been too busy to even buy it. Then again, Blaine knows that a neighbourhood like this isn’t included, so he assumes it’s a future content pack.

He’s been in unfamiliar settings of fictional stories before, namely the Carry On dimension and the The Good Place dimension. He’d already concluded that these sort of dimensions are probably not tied to the timeline Blaine’s from. He’s walking around in settings of future media.

It’s mind-blowing.

That, and the beautiful city.

There are skyscrapers, billboards, street art pieces, food stands… it’s a lot to take in. Blaine also woke up in an apartment this morning, so apartments will return to The Sims 4. He takes out his phone from his trusty bag. He still can’t use it to call or text, but the camera function works perfectly. He takes a couple of pictures of the beautiful view.

After walking around for a while, Blaine finds a brochure with information. He lives in the Arts Quarter, which is one of the four main sub neighbourhoods of the city of San Myshuno. The Arts Quarter is known for its arts center Casbah Gallery.

Blaine decides to start his quest for Kurt and the book there. Literature is art, so maybe he can find the book in there. First, he stops at a food stand. When he woke up, he left the apartment without having breakfast, because he wanted to see the city.

* * *

There are no books in the Casbah Gallery, but there’s a lot of beautiful art. Blaine could stay here all day.

Photographs are not permitted in the Casbah Gallery, so Blaine takes a business card of the gallery as a memory. He really hopes the book will need it.

He’s about to leave the gallery when something catches his eye.

There aren’t any books in this gallery, but displayed behind the glass is the book. Blaine’s so excited to have found it that he almost forgets the flaw in the plan: it’s an art piece in an exhibition. There’s no way he can steal it.

After all, he’s done potentially damaging the lives of the other Blaine’s. The smallest mistake can have the biggest impact, as the previous dimension pointed out. A simple thing like snoozing an alarm can change it all.

Stealing an art piece is not a small mistake.

* * *

Blaine overhears some tourists talking about a karaoke bar called the Waterside Warble. It’s not really a lead, since Blaine has no reason to believe that Kurt will be there, but the name reminds him of The Warblers.

Maybe it’ll remind Kurt of The Warblers as well. Maybe Kurt’s under the impression that Blaine will be there.

After asking around, Blaine finds out that the Waterside Warble is located in another part of the city, namely the Spice Market.

It’s a long walk. For a second, Blaine’s afraid there’s no other way to get to another part of the city. Sure, it’s unrealistic that there’s no kind of underground in a city as big as San Myshuno, but this is The Sims. When you play the game, your Sims don’t necessarily need transport. You have a load screen, so the creators didn’t put a public transport system in their worlds.

Blaine lets out a sigh of relief when he sees a subway sort of thing.

 _Landscaping_ , Blaine thinks, _The programmers still put in a lot of background art_.

It’s cool that Blaine gets to experience fictional settings like this. The train ride to the Spice Market isn’t very long. It turns out that the Spice Market is close to the Arts Quarter.

Blaine stops at another food stand before going to the Waterside Warble. He opens the door and he can hear singing.

_What is this feeling  
So sudden and new?_

He knows that voice.

 _I felt the moment_  
_I laid eyes on you_  
 _My pulse is rushing_  
 _My head is reeling_  
 _My face is flushing_  
 _Oh, what is this feeling?_

There are a couple of rooms with a karaoke machine, but only one is in use.

Kurt is singing Wicked. Members of The New Directions are littered around the karaoke bar. Puck is drinking loads at the bar. Tina and Mike are talking to each other. Artie and Quinn are discussing the new changes to the city, implemented by a San Myshuno politician named Gilbert. Santana is dancing with Brittany. They’re all having a great time.

He opens the door to the room that Kurt’s in. He’s singing and Rachel is standing next to him, also holding a microphone.

He goes off-key for a second when he sees Blaine, but he continues without a hitch. Mercedes and Sam are sitting on the couch, watching them. Kurt and Rachel finish the song and they all applaud.

“Who are you?” is the first thing Rachel asks when the applause dies down.

“Oh, I’m just a listener,” Blaine says.

The answer seems okay, because Rachel immediately takes Kurt’s microphone out of his hand and she pushes it in Blaine’s grip.

“Can you sing?”

“Oh, yeah.”

Blaine and Rachel sing a song, then Sam and Mercedes. Quinn opens the door mid-song and she sings a duet with Mercedes before Rachel demands a solo.

Blaine’s enjoying himself.

Especially when he gets to sing with Kurt.

When picking out a song, they are very tempted to pick a love song, but to the others it’d look weird. Kurt and Blaine aren’t supposed to know each other. Instead, they sing a popular pop song, but they still sound amazing.

Rachel demands another solo and Kurt and Blaine decide to go to the bar to talk.

They make sure that Puck can’t overhear them before talking.

“This city is amazing,” Blaine says immediately.

Kurt nods eagerly. “Oh, it does make me miss home a bit more. New York, New York, what a wonderful town!”

“We’ve seen several New Yorks lately, but we haven’t explored the city. We need to do this at home.” _When we have time_ , Blaine wants to add. But he holds his tongue. He knows that Kurt’s extremely busy and he also knows that Kurt’s planning on changing it.

Blaine tells Kurt about his day and about living in the Arts Quarter and about how he eventually hoped to find Kurt here.

“Look at that, The New Directions in a spot for The Warblers,” Kurt says, “I had kind of hoped to find you here as well because of the name.”

“Great minds think alike.”

“I live in the Fashion District with Rachel, but we live all over the city. A lot of The New Directions live in the Spice Market so we go here a lot. And apparently, we prefer this karaoke bar over the one in the Fashion District called Planet Honey Pop! Rachel texted me about it and when I read the name, I knew I had to go here.”

“This place is really cool. It’d be a shame to leave.”

Kurt smiles a little bit. “We gotta go one day. We only need to find the book.”

Blaine had forgotten about that!

“Wait, I know where to find it.”

He tells Kurt about the Casbah Gallery and the book. Kurt’s shoulders slump when Blaine tells him it’s an art piece.

They have to come up with a plan, but then Rachel calls for them to sing.

* * *

Blaine wakes up next to Kurt in Kurt’s fancy apartment in the Fashion District.

Normally, Blaine wants to avoid staying the night in a dimension, but he has Kurt next to him now.

Kurt slowly stirs awake and Blaine plants a kiss on his cheek. “Morning, love.”

Kurt smiles. “Morning,” he mumbles.

“Put on some pants. It’s time for breakfast and then we’re off to the Casbah Gallery.”

* * *

After breakfast and Rachel’s surprise at seeing a half-naked Blaine in the kitchen, they are on the train to the Arts Quarter.

They don’t have a plan, but first they want to see the book again.

The Casbah Gallery isn’t very crowded in the morning, so they can see the book easily. After they’ve made sure that this is the book they’re looking for, they start thinking of a plan, but it’s really difficult. At one point, they even start suggesting the most ridiculous plans.

“We can just set fire to this place,” Blaine says jokingly.

“Hey, this is The Sims series. What’s more iconic than fires?” Kurt says back.

“Drowning? Cowplants? Simlish? I think we’re probably talking Simlish, but that it’s translated for us? It’s weird.”

“Are we Sims? Or are we people?”

“The Sims is weird.”

“What would happen if we set this place on fire?”

They’re joking of course, but after talking about it for a while, they are getting weirdly serious about this.

“… Kurt, we can’t set fire to this place,” Blaine says when he realises that they’re getting serious. But they’re also getting desperate, so fire seems reasonable.

“Fuck, we can’t.”

“We’re not pyros. This is ridiculous.”

It’s as if the universe is messing with them, because just when they’re about to accept the fact that it’s incredibly difficult to obtain the book, someone starts yelling: “Fire! There’s a fire!”

The alarm goes off and people start running around to the exits. Blaine doesn’t hesitate. He grabs Kurt’s hand and they run to the main entrance.

But, as they pass the art pieces, Blaine kicks the glass shielding the book.

“Blaine, this is literally the weirdest thing that has happened to us in a while, and that is saying something!” Kurt yells as he watches Blaine shove the book in his bag.

Fire isn’t fun, though. Setting Sims on fire might be iconic in their dimension, but actually experiencing what it’s like to feel fire spreading towards them is terrible. Since this is a community lot, there is an actual alarm, so they can all get out.

“When we get home, I will start up my game, and I will put fire alarms and sprinklers in every damn lot that I own and I will never set my Sims on fire again!” Blaine says loudly.

Still, their original plan has worked. Due to all the commotion, no one noticed them stealing the book. They are being evacuated and they leave to go to Blaine’s apartment.

Inside, they flip open the book to the right page and the two shapes are obvious.

“That’s the brochure of the Arts Quarter,” Blaine says.

“That’s the flyer of the Waterside Warble,” Kurt points towards the other one.

“I have the brochure in my bag, but do you have a flyer?” Blaine asks Kurt.

But Kurt shakes his head. “I only recognise it because I saw a lot of them lying around at the karaoke bar.”

Kurt’s right. Blaine recognises the oddly shaped flyer as well, since it was everywhere. This means they have to go back to the Waterside Warble. This quest is longer than expected, since most of the time, they already have both objects with them.

Blaine gets his bag and he takes out the brochure and the Sinnoh Region Guide Book. He explains to Kurt that he’s overheard some of his friends talking about a politician named Gilbert and he writes it down.

But when he puts the brochure on the page, nothing happens.

Kurt frowns.

“I don’t get it?” Blaine says and he puts the brochure on the page again.

He holds up the brochure and Kurt says: “It is clearly this brochure.”

“Then why won’t it work?”

They try different ways of putting the brochure on the page, but it won’t disappear. After a while, they decide to get back to this. First, they go to the Waterside Warble.

* * *

It’s busy in the Spice Market since there’s a Flea Market. Kurt’s tempted to buy something, but he doesn’t know what, so he buys a weird ‘MySims Trophy’. Blaine puts it in his bag to take it home.

They walk around the Flea Market, on their way to the Waterside Warble, when Kurt stops Blaine from walking.

“What is it?”

Kurt nods towards a table filled with brochures of the Spice Market. It looks exactly like the brochure of the Arts Quarter, but it’s filled with information of the Spice Market.

“Brilliant!”

Blaine takes a brochure and they continue their trip to the Waterside Warble. They’re not here to sing, but to grab the flyer. When they enter the karaoke bar, it is tempting, but they have to resist.

Since the flyers are everywhere, it’s very easy to take one.

The two of them book a karaoke room just for now, since they need privacy and they don’t want to travel all the way back to Blaine’s apartment.

“I really hope this works,” Blaine says as he puts down the Spice Market brochure, “I love this city, but I don’t feel like exploring Uptown or the Fashion District or the Myshuno Meadows.”

But to their relief, the brochure disappears into the page. Kurt puts down the flyer.

Five words are starting to form on the next page. “Five? This is getting ridiculous.”

Blaine reads the words. “It is also getting specific again.”

Kurt reads the words out loud. “’Skydiving in an aerial show’? What the hell?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, it’s The Sims. Fires happen. Look, this is just something really random and ridiculous as a note to the ridiculousness that is The Sims series. Blaine does note about how scary and real it feels.


	20. Skydiving in an aerial show

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am back! If you have read the lovely comments on this fic, you might know why this AU is so precise. It was suggested by VallyJean22. It was quite a challenge since I don’t know much about skydiving and I also did zero research for this.
> 
> I realised that maybe I should’ve put more research in it, but by then it was already mostly written, so oops? If you know a thing about skydiving and aerial shows and think “hey, this is bullshit”, let’s pretend that in this dimension, this is how these things go. Besides, the reason I chose this suggestion is because I saw something symbolic in it.
> 
> Oh, and, uhm…
> 
> _TW: Panic attack, discussion of anxiety (but not much)_
> 
> You can see the end notes for more information.

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 20: Transaction**

**Dimension eighteen: Skydiving in an aerial show**

* * *

Kurt wakes up because he hears an awful sound.

It’s Santana’s singing.

There are two possible explanations for this. She either can’t sing in this dimension, or she just wants to annoy everyone. Knowing her, it’s probably the second option.

Kurt throws the sheets off him and he groans. It’s time to get up. Whatever happens, Santana will be in this dimension.

He’s not in the loft. He’s not even in an apartment. It looks like he’s in one big collective sleeping room. The other members from The New Directions are here and some are yelling at Santana to shut up.

“We’re up, jeez,” Sam yells.

“Guys, today is the big day,” Santana says, “No way in hell I’m gonna let us be late.”

“So you wake us up with your awful singing at-” Quinn looks at her phone “-six in the morning? _Santana_!”

“The show isn’t till noon,” Rachel says, sounding annoyed.

“Look, if we get there on time, we have more time to inspect our drop zone and what not. I’d like to be prepared,” Santana says back.

“Again,” Quinn falls back on her bed, “Six in the morning.”

“We can put up the best aerial show without waking up this early,” Puck says and he also lies down again.

Santana opens her mouth to sing again.

“Okay, okay!” Puck shoots up, “We’re done sleeping.”

* * *

The sun is shining. There’s no wind. The air is clear. And people are jumping out of airplanes.

The New Directions aren’t a singing glee club in this dimension. Oh no, in this dimension, they’re skydiving performers. The group is split up in smaller groups and Kurt’s paired with Rachel, Santana, and Mercedes.

Kurt watches some of the other practise and he gulps. He really has to jump out of a moving plane?

He has to trust them with his life.

Sure, he knows there will be parachutes and at least this body is trained for jumping out of a plane at a certain height, but Kurt himself has never done this before and no one can know about it.

There’s also a sort of skydiving simulation that blows wind from beneath so that you can at least float. This way, you can practise your tricks. Kurt hopes he’ll get comfortable with the feeling while practising in that simulation, because there’s no way to go back. The New Directions have worked incredibly hard to get here. He can’t blow it for them.

Luckily, Santana discusses all their tricks with the others and they’re relatively easy. They have to grab each other every time in different formations.

Unfortunately for Kurt, the moment they practise their tricks in the simulation, it becomes clear that it is not easy. It only look easy. Holding each other isn’t necessarily difficult, but being able to float towards each other in the right formation is more difficult than Kurt had expected.

And this is a simulation!

Later this day, he has to do this while falling down.

The others notice that Kurt is having problems.

After the practise, Rachel scolds him and Santana shoots him a disapproving look. Only Mercedes asks Kurt if he’s okay, but he can’t really tell her that he’s literally never done this before, because he’s from a different dimension.

Instead he thanks her for asking and he avoids answering.

Mercedes clearly notices, but she seems to think that Kurt needs some time alone, so she lets it slide. She does pat him on the shoulder while she passes him.

Today is going to be a disaster.

* * *

There’s another kind of practise.

Namely the one that involves them jumping out of a moving plane a couple of feet up in the air. Kurt’s scared shitless. He can’t remember the last time he’s felt this anxious.

“Tell Gilbert to slow down!” Puck yells and Sam nods. He then goes to talk to the captain of this small plane.

The plane slows down and Puck, Mike and Sam get ready to jump. They all have a laugh and they talk as if they aren’t planning on jumping out of a plane.

Then again, this is probably normal for them. They have no reason to be afraid. They’re trained.

The four of them jump out of the plane and the others cheer. Brittany, Tina and Quinn are next.

And after that, it’s time for Rachel, Santana, Mercedes and Kurt.

He knows what lever to pull in order to get the parachute, but it still feels terrifying. Rachel, Santana and Mercedes stand by the opening. They’re clearly waiting for Kurt to join them.

“Let’s do this,” Rachel says with a lot of confidence.

But Kurt feels frozen. He knows he can do it, since this version of him is trained for it as well, but the thought of Kurt falling from the air with nothing to hold on to is the worst. Oh God, he’s going to throw up.

What the hell is he feeling? Why is he suddenly so anxious? It’s as if he’s about to pass out. He’s having trouble breathing.

Santana notices something is wrong and she whispers something to Rachel, who nods. She goes to Gilbert to talk to him.

Mercedes crouches next to him. “Kurt, what is it?”

A part of Kurt still wants to shrug it off and pretend that he’s fine, but he knows that it will not work. He’s literally curled up in a ball, trying not to panic.

“I can’t do it,” he chokes out.

“We’ve done this before,” Santana says and she also crouches next to him. Kurt half-expects her to make a snarky comment, like she did earlier today, but then he sees the worry in her eyes.

 _Not me!_ he wants to yell out, but he bites his tongue. These versions of Rachel, Mercedes and Santana can’t know that Kurt isn’t their Kurt. That, and Kurt has the feeling that there’s more to it.

Kurt wishes he could explain it. It feels like it’s more than fear of jumping out of a plane. He doesn’t like having the feeling that there’s nothing to hold on to. Kurt needs some sense of stability, also in literal sense.

_What do you think it’s like to fly for the first time?_

The pigeons. Blaine was feeding them in New York, right before his big showcase with June Dolloway. They talked about flying and trust, since they had that fight.

Suddenly, Kurt gets reminded of it. Now, Kurt’s about to find out what it is like to fly.

Mercedes puts her hand on Kurt’s chest. “Kurt, I think you are having a panic attack? My brother gets them as well. Okay, Kurt, you need to breathe. Breathe with me, okay?”

A panic attack? Great. That’s usually Blaine’s forte. Gosh, this is stupid.

Kurt follows her lead, but he hates the fact that she has to see him like this. Kurt doesn’t like being vulnerable, especially in front of people he loves. He’s fine. He’s supposed to be fine.

Overall, he can’t even understand why he’s suddenly feeling so terrified. He’s seen worse. Hell, he worked in a hospital wing in an apocalyptic dimension where he watched the New Directions rescue team bring in people with missing limbs.

And why is he suddenly thinking about those damn pigeons?

“It’s okay,” Mercedes says when he’s calmed down. She pulls him into a hug.

_Relationships are like that. You give someone your heart to look after and you tell yourself that you’re safe, but you never know if today or tomorrow’s going to be the day they drop it like a stone._

The words, his words, ring in his head. He mentally replays his conversation with Blaine about flying and trusting each other.

This isn’t about Blaine.

At least, it didn’t start with Blaine.

He slowly relaxes in Mercedes’s embrace. Kurt needs some sense of stability and flying isn’t stability. And that freaks him out, and him freaking out in front of his friends makes it even worse. The jumping isn’t necessarily the problem, but feeling like he’s just falling endlessly is.

He knows he has to land, but it feels so far away.

“We know our profession is kinda scary,” Santana says, “And we know that sometimes the nerves we felt at the beginning can come back, but we won’t let you fall, Kurt.”

“Yeah,” Rachel, who’s still on the other side of the plane, says, “Trust us, Kurt. You can trust us. We’ve never let go of you.”

_Then I realised that trust is a choice._

Kurt takes a deep breath. He watches his friends. They are all so worried. Kurt’s first instinct is to turn away in embarrassment, but that’s part of the problem, isn’t it? He still remembers the conversation in New York. Kurt was talking about the importance of trust, and yet, he still doesn’t fully trust Blaine.

Wait, no.

He does trust Blaine, but he doesn’t trust himself.

The realisation suddenly hits him like a freight train. He does trust Blaine, but he doesn’t trust himself to be completely open with him yet. Despite everything, he still doesn’t like feeling vulnerable in front of Blaine. He still doesn’t like asking for help. Kurt has disregarded Blaine wanting to help him because it felt like a sign of weakness.

He’s seen a lot in these past couple of dimension. He’s seen how much Blaine means to him. After all, they literally spend most of the time trying to find each other, because they don’t want to go on without each other.

Kurt has also realised how busy he is. He has also seen how Blaine feels. He understands Blaine better now. Back in his own dimension, he was under the impression that they knew each other through and through, but the rift between them kept growing.

Now that Kurt sees things differently, he knows for sure that this rift will close.

He slowly begins to calm down, just a little bit.

Santana squeezes his arm. “Alright?”

“Alright,” Kurt mutters.

Rachel helps him up. Kurt knows he’s red in the face, but he takes deep breaths until he feels like he can sort of do this. Yup, he’s about to jump out of a moving plane. This really isn’t weird at all.

“Let’s do this, then,” Mercedes says.

The four of them move to the opening.

Kurt looks down and he feels a bit nauseous when he sees how high in the air they are. He can see small specks that are representing his friends. They’re on the ground. They’ve landed safely and they’re probably all wondering what is taking them so long to jump. Gilbert keeps flying in circles.

It’s still terrifying because they are this high up in the air.

But then Santana takes his hand. Mercedes takes his other hand and then she grabs Rachel’s hand. The four of them stand hand in hand. They’ve got each other’s backs. They have to trust each other and oh boy, Kurt trusts these women with his life.

Literally, since he’s about to jump out of a flying plane.

The trust he feels for them is permanent, and not some transaction he can undo.

_I choose to trust and to love you through everything._

Together, they jump.

* * *

Kurt still feels like throwing up every time he’s this high in the air, but after some practise, he now knows that Rachel, Mercedes and Santana would rather die than let Kurt fall.

The time for the big show nears. The stands are filled with people who are here to see them. The New Directions aren’t just some skydiving performers, oh no, they’re well-known skydiving performers. Kurt can add that to his nerves.

Everyone’s chatting happily. Some others are nervous as well, but for other reasons. Mercedes constantly keeps her eyes on him.

One more hour and Kurt’s up in the air and everyone will be watching him.

He’s walking around, trying to find the book. Now that he’s somewhat calm, he can focus on his main mission: find the book, find the objects, find Blaine. He has the feeling Blaine is somewhere on those stands, waiting for him.

Why didn’t they sell VIP tickets? Blaine could’ve bought VIP tickets.

They’re not that kind of performers, apparently.

The lot is empty for the most part. Only the essentials are here. There are no books lying around. Usually, the book is found between other books. That’s why they often find it in libraries, but there is no library close by.

Kurt’s also been holding on to small clutter. He knows the drill. The book will want something and Kurt has the feeling this is a dimension he ought to remember. He needs the reminder of his epiphany. He can’t wait to talk about Blaine about it, since communication is the key and they’re striving to be better at it.

He’s still walking around when suddenly, someone basically tackles him from behind.

He half expects it to be Blaine, but Blaine is not this tall. It’s Mike.

“Hey Kurt,” he says.

“Hey Mike, you ready for the big show?”

Mike nods eagerly. “Oh yeah, Artie did such a great job directing it. My parents are in the crowd and they are very excited. Dad even brought the good ole _zǔfùmǔ_ with them to show them that having a grandson who jumps out of planes for a living is great. Still sucks to hear that Burt couldn’t be there.”

“Oh yeah, he’s busy,” Kurt says easily. Knowing his dad, he’s devastated that he can’t attend a show.

“Tell him we all miss him, right?” Mike says. It looks like his dad is basically a foster father to the entire glee club in every dimension. It warms Kurt’s heart.

Mike is still looking at him, and there’s something in his facial expression that tells Kurt that Mike is not here to talk about family.

“What is it, Mike?”

Mike looks around to see if no one can hear them. Then he lowers his voice: “Santana told me what happened in the air during the first practise round.”

“Oh.”

Kurt can feel the embarrassment come back.

“Look, I have anxiety. Not many people know about it. Tina knows. Santana found out by accident, so there’s no judgment from her,” Mike says.

Mike and anxiety?

Kurt feels a pang of sadness for this Mike, but then he wonders if his Mike might have it as well? He knows Mike was under a lot of stress from his family. He can’t dwell on it for long, because Mike keeps talking.

“If you wanna talk about it, it’s okay? I can talk with you.”

Kurt’s first instinct is to lie and tell Mike that he’s fine, but then he remembers his epiphany. It’s time to trust himself.

So instead, he swallows his pride and he nods. “I would appreciate that, Mike.”

Mike claps him on his back. “Alright! No judgment, okay?”

“No judgement,” Kurt says in agreement.

“Cool.”

Then Mike awkwardly walks away.

“Mike!” Kurt calls out.

“Yeah?”

“Random question, but have you seen a weird looking book lying around here?”

But Mike shakes his head.

* * *

They finish the show and they get a standing ovation. Kurt never thought that skydivers would be so loved by people.

He couldn’t spot Blaine in the crowd, but he hopes Blaine’s somewhere.

The New Directions all go back inside to talk with some of the crew members. Everyone is in a great mood. Kurt can’t believe he just did a successful aerial show. Before today, he’d never tried it.

Inside, Rachel is holding up a basket.

“I got all of us something, a small gift, to celebrate!” she yells out.

The basket is filled with very small handmade parachutes. They look terrible, but it still warms everyone’s heart that Rachel put effort in making small parachutes. It’s the message that counts.

Kurt accepts his small parachute. It has his name on it, the date, and the words ‘New Directions Aerial Extravaganza!’

He has the feeling that the book will want this and he feels a bit sorry for taking this gift from the Kurt from this dimension, but he needs it.

If only he has the book.

Brittany takes his arm and the two of them decide to go on a stroll around the drop zone. Brittany keeps on talking about her elaborate plan to let Lord Tubbington skydive with her.

Blaine is standing outside.

“Excuse me, Britt,” Kurt says. Brittany doesn’t seem to mind and she goes to Tina to continue her talk.

“That was amazing!” is the first thing Blaine says.

“You saw that, huh?” Kurt says, trying to play it cool, but he also feels a sense of pride.

“Fuck, I admit I was afraid to witness your possible death, but you’re always graceful, even in the air,” Blaine says excitedly.

“I’ve been practising all morning,” Kurt says. He doesn’t mention the panic attack. That will have to wait, since he doesn’t want to dampen Blaine’s mood.

“Oh, that explains why I am the one who found the book,” Blaine says playfully.

Kurt’s face lights up. “You found it?”

“Yup,” Blaine says happily, “I woke up this morning and I saw a flyer for the show. You were advertised on it, so I knew where to find you. I originally planned on trying to talk to you before the show, but when I was in the bus on my way to the aerial show, I passed a bookstore and saw the book! I left at the nearest stop and bought it, but this obviously meant that my time getting here got longer than expected.”

Blaine opens his bag and he hands the book to Kurt.

“I did buy a limited edition copy of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, so I don’t mind that much. They have limited editions in this dimension that don’t exist in ours, Kurt! It’s extra limited!”

Kurt laughs and he looks down at the book.

“This thing can be found at weird times,” he says.

“It needed the flyer that I mentioned,” Blaine says.

Kurt’s about to open it when he hears Sam calling his name.

“Yo Kurt, we’re about to head out for dinner! You ready?” he yells from the lot.

“Be there in a sec!” Kurt yells back. Then he turns to Blaine. “Looks like we have to leave right now.”

The two of them find a private spot and Kurt opens the book. As expected, the small parachute is the object that it needs. He takes it out of his pocket.

“That thing is hideous, but also cute,” Blaine says.

“Rachel made it for all of us,” Kurt says back. Then he turns to Blaine again. “Before we go, I have to say two things. First, Gilbert flew the plane.”

“… I forgot about him.”

“Second, something happened in the air.”

With great difficulty, Kurt tells Blaine what happened. He leaves out some unimportant details, since they don’t have much time, but Blaine gets the point. Kurt doesn’t look at him while talking. He knows Blaine won’t judge him, just like Mike, but it feels weird.

“Hey,” Blaine puts his hand on Kurt’s shoulder, “You’re shaking, love.”

“Oh.” Kurt looks up and Blaine’s warm eyes greet him. There’s no judgement or pity. Kurt didn’t think it’d be there, but he still feels relieved.

“But thanks for telling me,” he says, “We’ll talk about it in the next dimension, or when we get home, but we’ll talk.”

“Yes. Of course.”

Blaine takes the ugly parachute out of Kurt’s shaking hands and he puts it on the page. It disappears and Blaine flips the page.

“Huh. ‘Bodyguard’,” he reads out loud.

“Bodyguard?”

“Bodyguard,” Blaine confirms, “Looks like it’s time for action.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kurt has a panic attack while he’s up in the air during a practise. Santana, Rachel and Mercedes are there to guide him through it. Later, Mike tells Kurt that he has anxiety and he offers support.


	21. Bodyguard

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you are reading this, then I first want to thank you for sticking around. When I started this story, I did not expect it to be this long. Chapter 1 to 20 are 51,187 words long, which makes this the longest work I’ve ever written, and I am not finished yet, since today I will add around 10K more words to it, and there are still two more chapters to go.
> 
> Oh, yeah, I am adding around 10K words since this is a double update! I had finished chapter 22 before chapter 21. This chapter was a pain in the ass, but I still enjoyed writing it. This is written for KlaineUnite, who was kind enough to suggest a bodyguard AU.
> 
> _TW: desciptions of injuries and captivity, but nothing too heavy_
> 
> You can see the end notes for more information.

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 21: Understand**

**Dimension nineteen: bodyguard**

* * *

When Blaine wakes up, the sight of Burt Hummel crying at his bedside greets him.

Burt realizes that Blaine’s awake and he attempts to dry his tears.

“… Burt?” Blaine asks in confusion, “What are you doing here?”

Burt takes a deep breath. “I am here to make sure you’re okay, kid, and to make sure that you know that none of this is your fault, okay? I want you to know that I don’t blame you for anything that has happened.”

Blaine has no idea what he’s talking about. He looks around and he sees that he’s in some sort of hospital wing. Not only that, but there’s security everywhere.

Not for him.

But for Burt.

Burt Hummel is wearing a fancy suit with a pin of the American flag and a pin of the rainbow flag. There’s also a banner that says ‘Burt Hummel, 2016!’ in the background.

Holy shit. Burt Hummel is the future president of the United States.

Not only that, but something bad must’ve happened. Blaine looks around some more and he sees that there’s someone else lying in a hospital bed as well.

“Wes!” Blaine tries to get up, but Burt pushes him back, “What is wrong with him?” And why is Wes always the one who gets hurt?

Burt looks a bit puzzled. “Don’t you remember? The doctors said that you hit your head, but they didn’t mention possible amnesia.”

Blaine decides to put this to good use. If he pretends to have amnesia, then him asking questions won’t be too suspicious. “I’m sorry? What happened?”

Burt sighs deeply. “Do you, uhm, know who you are?”

“Blaine Anderson,” Blaine answers honestly. He only wants to figure out where he is. He doesn’t want to worry Burt too much.

Which is a good thing, because Burt lets out another sigh, but this time from relief.

“Blaine. Then you probably do remember that you are the bodyguard of my son, Kurt.”

Blaine just nods, but he already has a bad feeling about this.

“Again, son, this is not your fault. Kurt and I trust you with our lives and we know that you would never hurt Kurt,” Burt says. There’s something in his voice, though. It’s as if Burt is suspecting that there’s something more going on. “You and Kurt were ambushed. Wes Montgomery, who also works with us, happened to be close by and he tried to help, but you and Wes were taken out and when we found you, Kurt was gone.”

“Wow,” Blaine says slowly as he lets the new information sink in, “I could’ve died.”

But Burt shakes his head. “I don’t think they wanted you to die, since they left a note.”

“Who took Kurt?” Blaine asks, since that is a more pressing matter.

Burt looks towards the other armed men and they nod. Then, Burt says: “We don’t know. That’s the worst part of it. We were given an address and a sum of money they request. Secret services are trying to track Kurt down as we speak, but we have no idea.”

“Is it terrorism?”

Burt shakes his head. “We have no reason to believe that.”

“Then who did this?” Blaine asks.

But Burt tells him not to worry.

Blaine should rest.

* * *

Blaine is going stir-crazy. He’d expected more of the bodyguard dimension than sitting in a hospital bed and waiting. Wes has woken up. The two of them are relatively fine. Blaine knows they’ve gotten extremely lucky, since they could’ve gotten killed.

Wes is silent, but there’s a comfortable silence between the two of them. Wes has been given his Nintendo, so he’s occupied. Blaine has started reading the limited edition of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, since he has time to kill.

Besides, he has to be busy. When he’s reading, he’s not thinking.

Burt has asked Blaine and Wes if they need something. Blaine has asked for the book. Hopefully, Burt can find it for him. After all, he’s the president.

No one is telling him anything, since everyone is of the opinion that he should rest.

Wes claims that the secret services are probably working around the clock to find Kurt. The news that the president’s son is missing has unfortunately reached the public. Apart from some hardcore Republican saying that this is Burt’s own fault, everyone’s supporting Burt. Even Fox News. The support is nice, but the constant media attention isn’t.

Even if Blaine has access to classified information in this dimension, he’s not getting it. No one is telling him anything. Blaine appreciates the concern, but he’s not happy with it. Kurt is his fiancé and he’s being held for ransom for God’s sake.

The rest of the day is incredibly uneventful. He reads, he talks to Wes, and he tries to worm information out of the people who give him food, but by midnight, Blaine’s gotten nowhere.

Wes says goodnight.

Blaine puts his book back in his bag and something shiny catches his eye. Hidden underneath the clothes he wore when he left his dimension is his knife from the apocalyptic dimension. It’s pretty unrealistic that security didn’t spot a knife, but by now Blaine’s accepted the fact that everything in this bag is being kept in this bag, as if his bag is some sort of dimension itself.

Tomorrow, he’s going to find Kurt, no matter what.

* * *

There’s a flaw in the plan.

He’s currently in a very secured hospital wing. There are literally armed men on the other side of the door. This is what happens when you’re close with the president of the United States. Sure, Blaine has a knife, but it’s nothing against a gun. Blaine can swerve his knife, but the guards can shoot him from a distance. That’s why everyone’s lobbying for gun control, not knife control.

Besides, Blaine does not want to harm the guards. They’re all trying to keep him safe.

And Burt would never forgive him.

Even if he manages to get past the guards, someone walking around in hospital robes will get noticed. Blaine still has the clothes from the very beginning with him, but after being in this bag for days, they’ve gotten damp and they smell.

He’s ruffling through his bag, hoping to find anything useful, but his bag is filled with souvenirs from different dimensions. Blaine loves them, but they’re very unhelpful right now. He gets them out of the bag one by one.

Unfortunately for Blaine, he’s so focused on his bag that he doesn’t notice Wes waking up.

Wes lets out a small scream when he sees the knife in Blaine’s hand.

“Where the _fuck_ did you get that?” Wes yells, and Blaine’s afraid the guards or nurses are going to barge in. He quickly puts the knife back in the bag.

“It’s… uh… mine.”

It’s not a lie.

Wes is staring at Blaine with wide eyes. He slowly gets out of bed. “Alright, Blaine, we gotta talk. You cannot just take a knife with you into one of the most secure hospital wings of the United States. We’re under the protection of the president. What are you even planning on doing with a knife?”

Blaine had expected Wes to be more confused about the knife being here in the first place.

“I am going to find Kurt.”

Wes snorts. “Yeah, right.”

Blaine does not like the patronising look on Wes’s face. Wes needs to understand that Blaine has to save him. Yes, sure, Blaine is slowly realising that his previous feelings about protecting Kurt are not always that great, but that does not mean that Blaine doesn’t care. He has to find Kurt, or he’ll go insane.

“I am going to find Kurt,” Blaine says again, with confidence in his voice.

Wes’s expression changes from patronising to somewhat sympathetic. “Blaine, we cannot do that.”

“You have to understand,” Blaine says urgently, “I cannot do this. I can’t sit here and do nothing, knowing that Kurt is out there!”

Wes stares at him and he blinks slowly. It’s creeping Blaine out.

The silence is awkward. Wes isn’t speaking, which starts to worry Blaine. Usually, Wes is the first to comment on everything, and Blaine’s sure that that hasn’t changed in this dimension.

“I need your help, Wes,” Blaine pleads.

Wes blinks again. “… I knew it.”

Blaine tilts his head to the side. Wes knew what?

“I knew it!” Wes yells out and Blaine’s surprised no one has barged in to check on them, “Oh my God. You two are in love, aren’t you?”

Blaine wants to nod, but he can’t know for sure. Wes is not talking about him and Kurt. He’s talking about the Kurt and Blaine from this dimension. However, the thought of the Kurt and Blaine of this dimension being in love makes Blaine’s heart swell with joy.

“Oh my God, Blaine! I knew something was up with you two, but I didn’t want to ask, but on the other hand, it was _so_ obvious,” Wes says. He’s strangely happy about this. “I think that even Mr. Hummel suspected it. Jeez, Blaine, knowing you, you probably think you have to keep it secret for whatever reason, but I totally support you and I bet Mr. Hummel does to!”

Wes continues talking about how happy he is for Blaine and Blaine likes it, but there are more pressing matters.

“Yes, yes, I love him,” Blaine says and Wes’s face lights up, “And therefore I can’t sit still. You gotta help me get out of here.”

“And how am I supposed to do that?” Wes frowns, “I wanna help, man, but what are expecting of me? This isn’t the Lion King where I start dancing a Hula - _I’m totally not gonna do that_! We cannot do that! You are a better dancer than I am!”

The more Wes speaks, the more Blaine realises that Wes is right. There’s nowhere to go. All his plans are terrible and unrealistic.

Wes is still talking. He’s a nervous talker in this dimension. Blaine starts pacing around the hospital wing, trying to come up with something new. It is very difficult, since apart from Burt, no one has the power to change things here.

Wait a second.

“Burt!” Blaine says loudly.

Wes stops mid-sentence to look at Blaine. “What is with him?”

“We can ask Burt to let me go,” Blaine says, feeling brilliant, “Like you said, Burt probably knows that I am-”

“Banging Kurt?”

Blaine scoffs. “I was going to say ‘dating’, but banging isn’t far from the truth either.”

Wes slaps his hand against his forehead and Blaine laughs.

Wes now has a red mark on his forehead, but he doesn’t seem to care. “So, what is your new plan? Request an audience with one of the most powerful men on the planet, because you’re in love? What gives you the idea that he will listen to you?”

Blaine rolls his eyes. “ _You_ gave me that idea, Wesley.”

Wes holds up his hands. “Now, now, all I said is that Mr. Hummel is probably aware of your undying love for his son. I didn’t say ‘hey, let’s ask Mr. Hummel if he can just discharge you for no reason apart from your undying love for his son!’.”

But Blaine’s made up his mind. He alerts one of the nurses and he requests a visit from the president.

* * *

Burt is sitting in front of Blaine and Wes, surrounded by guards, and he looks very annoyed.

“Okay, let me get this straight. You want me to use my presidential privileges to discharge you, even though it is clear that you still need rest.”

Blaine nods.

Burt sighs. “Blaine, I do have the power to overrule the decision made here, but I am not a medic. What kind of president would I be if I use my power to make decisions in things outside my field of knowledge, only because I want to?”

“It’s not like you are using your presidential power to overrule law and finance!” Blaine says, “You discharging me isn’t the same as, I don’t know, wanting to fire someone powerful at Wall Street because their fact-based predictions don’t match your views.”

Burt has an incredulous look on his face. “What kind of incompetent president would suggest that?”

Blaine waves it away. “That is not the point, sir. I really do appreciate your need and strive of integrity, but I can’t sit here, knowing that Kurt is out there!” Blaine points towards one of the blank walls, but they all get the message.

“Blaine, I know this is hard, but I still don’t see one reason to discharge you.”

Before Blaine can speak, Wes jumps in. “What about love?”

The guards all start to whisper with each other and even Burt seems taken aback by Wes’s answer. Blaine wants to say something, but Wes is first.

“Sir, forgive my words, but we all know that Kurt and Blaine have done a fucking terrible job at hiding their mutual attraction towards each other!”

“Wesley,” Blaine hisses, but apparently, in this dimension, Wes is just a talker.

Wes looks towards the guards. “I mean, please tell me you haven’t noticed the heart eyes and the longing stares and the blushes!”

To Blaine’s surprise, all the guards start to murmur short affirming answers.

“I mean, I once saw them holding hands,” one of the guards says and all the others turn to her.

“You did?”

“I knew it!”

“Why didn’t you say so? You know we love this gossip!”

Burt shakes his head and yells out: “Silence!”

All the guards immediately go back into position. Burt turns to Blaine.

“Blaine, do you love my son?”

“More than anything,” Blaine answers without hesitation, because it’s true and by now, he’s convinced that the Kurt and Blaine from this dimension are dating.

Burt rubs his temples. “I don’t want you to get hurt. I don’t want anyone who works for me to get hurt.”

“I understand, sir, but I am willing to take that risk!”

Burt frowns. “Are you?”

“Yes.”

“Do you really want this?”

“Yes!”

“If I let you, will you immediately join the search party?”

“Yes!”

“Are you willing to die for my son?”

“ _Yes_!”

The last answer leaves everyone stunned, even Blaine. Wes is openly staring at him and the guards start to whisper again.

Burt seems lost in thought. He doesn’t even care about calling off the guards. Wes eventually asks them to quiet down.

After a while, Burt turns to one of the guards. “Have Blaine Anderson discharged immediately.”

The guard salutes, which Burt doesn’t seem to like, and she leaves. Then Burt turns to another guard. “Notify Gilbert that Blaine Anderson will rejoin the search party.” That guard also salutes and leaves. Burt slightly shakes his head during the salute. When she’s gone, Burt turns to yet another guard and says: “Arrange a private jet towards the search party.”

“Yessir!” she doesn’t salute, but she still nods stiffly.

Blaine feels a sense of relief. Burt is letting him go. Wes pats his back.

“Blaine, I can see how much you love my son,” Burt says, “But please, also think of yourself? A part of me is flattered that you are willing to die for Kurt, but you matter as well. I expect both of you to come home.”

Blaine nods. “Of course! I promise!”

Burt unpins the rainbow flag pin from his suit and he hands it to Blaine. “And know that I totally support your relationship.”

Blaine accepts the pin. He wants to say something to thank Burt, but he thinks the message has come across.

* * *

There has been a hint of Kurt in New Haven. Since this entire search party is being kept under the wraps, Blaine wasn’t told till he landed in New Haven.

Blaine hoped to see a glimpse of the mysterious Gilbert, but instead he is greeted by the other Warblers. After asking about him and Wes, they immediately go back to action.

There’s another flaw in the plan, namely the fact that Blaine has no idea what is going on. The others speak to him in a completely different language and they expect Blaine to understand their instructions.

He always gets the physique of his version of a dimension, but not the knowledge. It’s dark and cold and Blaine hates everything, but he doesn’t regret his choice to go here.

Jeff has filled Blaine in with all the information they got so far. They got two witness statements. They’re not very reliable, but they’re something. Not only that, but they found a brooch close to the river that belongs to Kurt.

Since Blaine has not ‘inherited’ the knowledge of his other version, he pretends to understand what David is saying when David shows him all the maps and high tech tracking stuff. The government really has eyes and ears everywhere, and for once, Blaine is grateful.

It’s close to midnight and there’s no sign of Kurt.

On the maps, David has zoomed in on a house and they’re keeping an eye on that one. According to Trent, the people around town have no idea why the place seems to be empty, and when there’s movement, they hear a lot of shouting. Trent sees that as something suspicious and a great place to hide.

David has hacked into camera’s close to the house. Is it considered hacking since it is not illegal? After all, it’s to save Kurt.

Although it is getting late. Others are moving around the area while David and some other dude that Blaine does not know are sitting in a van with his monitors. It feels like a cliché spy movie and Blaine had expected more of the government than a weird van, but it’s all there to help Kurt.

He can’t wait any longer. Blaine has to find Kurt.

He doesn’t ask for David’s approval. He leaves the van to go looking for Kurt himself. He knows others are already roaming the city, but Blaine can’t sit by and wait. After all, he’s gotten out of the hospital.

David calls out his name, but Blaine basically runs. He has no idea where he is, since he’s never been in New Haven. He doesn’t have his phone on him, since people like him aren’t allowed to have personal tech on the job, so he can’t look up where he is.

But he’s winging it.

It’s cold and dark and Blaine’s mind is focused on one thing: find Kurt.

He has no idea how to do that, though. All he can do is wander around aimlessly, since he has abandoned his only mean of support.

Gosh, he is so stupid. He is too busy being the hero to think rationally. Again.

Blaine curses himself and he decides to find his way back to David when he hears some branches snap. Blaine grabs for his gun (wow, he has a gun!), but then to his utter shock, Kurt comes out of hiding. He was hiding in some bushes. He looks awful. His clothes are ripped, his face is bruised, and there’s some rope tied around his wrist, but he’s here.

“… Blaine?” he asks, looking as disbelieved as Blaine.

“Kurt, love?” Blaine asks in shock.

The next thing he knows, he’s on the ground with Kurt on top of him. Kurt’s run towards him and he has tackled him to the ground. “It’s you!”

Blaine can feel Kurt’s tears falling on him and he’s tearing up as well. Kurt’s gotten free. Kurt’s with him here. Kurt is now hugging Blaine desperately while crying. Blaine wraps his arms around him and he pulls him closer.

“You got out?”

“I got out!”

“How?”

Kurt laughs weakly. “I don’t believe in miracles, sweetheart, but I don’t know how else to describe it.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you, love.”

But Kurt shushes him. “That wasn’t you, Blaine. That was the version of you from this dimension.”

“I still feel responsible,” Blaine says sadly, “I know that I shouldn’t, but I can’t help but feel like I’ve failed you again. But then you once again proved to me that you don’t need saving.”

Kurt takes Blaine’s hand and he squeezes it. “You’re right. I don’t always need saving, but you know what kept me going these past hours?”

Blaine shakes his head.

“Knowing that wherever you are, you were looking for me,” Kurt says and he cups Blaine’s face, “Yes, I got away, but I knew that if I wouldn’t have gotten away, you would’ve found me. You’re always there for me, and knowing that I can rely on you keeps me going in life.”

Blaine can feel himself tear up all over again.

Kurt doesn’t always need saving, but that doesn’t mean that Blaine’s efforts are for nothing.

“I love you so much,” Blaine says.

“I love you too.”

* * *

David finds them and he also cries from relief when he sees that they’re both okay. He then notifies Burt and the rest of the rescue party to tell them that Kurt has been found. They want to bring Kurt to a hospital in New Haven, but Kurt demands to be taken to his father.

It’s no use protesting Kurt Hummel, especially when he’s the son of one of the most powerful men alive.

They’re on the first private jet to Washington D.C. and Burt personally welcomes Kurt back home. He cries the entire time and he does not want to let go of his son. Kurt cries as well. It doesn’t matter that they’re not technically each other’s family, since Kurt and his dad are close in every dimension.

Kurt gets all the medical care that he needs and Burt thanks Blaine for bringing Kurt back home. They both know that Blaine had no role in saving Kurt, but it still feels right. Blaine gets sent back to the hospital wing. He wants to stay with Kurt, but Burt assures him that he will see him soon.

In the hospital wing, a familiar object greets him. Someone’s put the book on the bed. Blaine had almost forgotten that he had asked for it. He doesn’t get time to look into it, because Wes is awake and chatty and he wants to know everything.

Blaine doesn’t remember falling asleep, but when he wakes up, Kurt’s lying in the bed next to his. He’s obviously been cared for.

Blaine wakes him up. They have to leave before Wes wakes up.

But then Kurt tells him to stay.

“What? _Why_?”

“What if the other Kurt returns and he doesn’t remember how he got away? I have to tell the detectives or whatever how I got away and what I saw,” Kurt answers sadly ,”I don’t know who took me, but I do remember what they look like. The Kurt from this dimension needs justice.”

So Blaine has to spend a huge chunk of the day listening to Kurt’s stories. Kurt talks about being moved from vehicle to vehicle. Kurt describes the ways these people have hurt him and Blaine feels the need to punch something. Kurt eventually tells them that he managed to find a way out. He was tied to a bed, but the bed was very old. He managed to break off the part of the bed where he was tied to. Then he got one hand free, but the men noticed it.

Luckily for Kurt, he now had a part of a steel bedframe and he managed to knock them down before they could reach for their guns.

After all, Kurt was not held in that house, which is the reason why the others didn’t find a thing after investigating the place after Kurt got found. The men could’ve woken up and gotten away, but thanks to Kurt’s quite detailed descriptions and his directions from the house to the bushes he was hiding in, others might be able to track them down.

During all the talking, Blaine is with him. No one bats an eyelash. Their relationship is no longer a secret. In fact, at one point, Burt comes in to tell Kurt and Blaine how much he approves and that he loves Kurt.

“I also found the book, Blaine,” Burt says, “It is really weird, but your detailed description of the book made it possible for me to find it in the White House of all places.”

Then, Burt gives them some time alone.

Wes wasn’t present. He wasn’t allowed to listen along, so Kurt and Blaine see it as a perfect moment to leave.

Kurt opens the book. One of the objects is unmistakably Burt’s rainbow pin. Blaine unpins it from his hospital robe and he puts in on the page.

The other object looks like a crooked line, but Kurt figures it out.

“It’s the rope,” he says.

“The rope?”

Kurt nods. “There was some rope around my wrist. I got rid of the piece of bedframe, but I couldn’t untie all of the rope. They cut it loose for me.”

“Where is it?” Blaine asks in panic. Do they have to break into some forensic lab?

But Kurt smiles. “It’s under my pillow.”

Blaine gives Kurt an incredulous look. “May I ask why the hell you decided to keep that shit?”

Kurt retrieves the rope and he puts it on the page. “It may represent something bad in your eyes and I get it. It is a reminder that someone held me captive, but I also see it as a reminder of my freedom. I got free. I got out. The rope has been cut up. It’s over.”

Blaine doesn’t really have a response towards that, so he just kisses Kurt’s cheek.

They watch the rope disappear and reappear as an image. Two new words start to form on the next page and Blaine can’t wait to get out of this hellhole.

‘Check, Please!’

“What is that supposed to mean?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kurt gets kidnapped. Eventually he gets out, but he’s bruised up and he describes how he got away: by hitting his captors with a part of a steel bedframe.


	22. Check, Please!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally just “hockey”, but I don’t know enough of hockey to create a setting, so I changed it to “Check, Please!” so that I could use Samwell as a setting
> 
> I want to thank some of the people [on Plurk](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.plurk.com%2Fp%2Fn3difk&t=YTNjZDcwNjc5MzAyMjAxYTQxNDUxZDA1NWI1OTRlMDFiNjc1MDA2Niw4cmVpWHFhYQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A1_FbMVvKlyXyfeQlKE-AmQ&p=http%3A%2F%2Fforabeatofadrum.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F182355396063%2Fall-the-pretty-things-that-we-could-be-2224&m=0) for answering my hockey related questions: Jaycie, Shannon, Lauren, and Annika (hey, you told me to have Kurt score the booty!)

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 22: Vegetarian**

**Dimension twenty: Check, Please!**

* * *

Kurt wakes up in a bus.

He’s on a bus and the New Directions boys are all with him on that bus. To Kurt’s surprise, even some newer New Directions boys are on the bus, and so are Matt (wow!), Joe, Rory and Jesse. Kurt hadn’t seen them before in these dimensions. It’s always Mike, Puck, Sam and Artie only.

No Finn.

Never Finn.

To Kurt’s bigger surprise, there are also strangers on this bus. They’re all wearing some sort of red and white varsity jacket. Sam’s in the seat next to him and he’s asleep.

Kurt knows he’s wearing one of those jackets, but it’s hard to take it off because of the seatbelts. Instead, he stares at Sam’s jacket, since he won’t notice. Two crossed hockey sticks are displayed on his jacket and the name ‘Samwell’ is on it as well.

They’re a hockey team?

Kurt looks around. Not everyone is sleeping. Mike and Matt are playing a game on their Nintendos, Artie is discussing strategy with Mr. Schue and Coach Beiste, who seems to be the coaches. Puck is listening to music, and Jesse and Rory are talking to some of the strangers.

Some other strangers are also talking about hockey.

Kurt has a bag with him and he finds a student card of himself. He’s a senior at Samwell University. There’s also a phone in the bag with a calendar. Since Sam is sleeping, no one can see that it’s kind of suspicious that Kurt is trying to figure out what is going on.

It’s a Friday and the first days of the week leading up to Friday are all marked as ‘roadie’. Many people think Kurt’s absolutely clueless about sport, but he was raised by Burt Hummel. Kurt sure knows what a roadie is in the sports world.

They must be on their way back to school given it’s the end of the roadie. Since everyone looks quite happy, Kurt assumes they’ve won.

Kurt’s still on his phone when someone pokes his side.

“Pssst, yo, Hummer!”

Mike is sitting in the seat on the other side of the aisle. He’s done playing his video game and now he’s poking Kurt for attention.

Hummer?

“What, Mike?”

“Do you wanna go on a murder run with us when we get back to the Haus? We still need to buy some snacks for the upcoming Kegster tomorrow.”

“Dude, Hummer was going to help Trouty secure the Reading Room so that the tub juice won’t leak down our roof,” Matt reminds his friend.

“Oh yeah, ‘swawesome. I thought we’d put the Frogs or the Taddies on that.”

“Wait shit, you’re kinda right. The Waffles are on it.”

It’s almost as if they’re talking another language, but Kurt just nods along. It’s basically turned into a conversation between Mike and Matt anyway.

Sam has slowly woken up.

“Kegster plans?” he mumbles, half-awake.

Kurt nods again. He really has no idea what this Kegster is.

“Fuck, that means that we have to listen to Tina and Rachel’s bragging again,” Sam sighs and he rubs his eyes.

“Uhm, that’s not that bad,” Matt says, “After all, they’re kind of right? The Samwell Female Hockey Team is arguably better than the Samwell Male Hockey Team, but don’t tell them I said so.”

“Even worse will be Rachel and Tina hanging over their boyfriends. I don’t want to watch Rachel and Saint make out all evening and I don’t want seeing Tina all over Wheels either,” Mike says. Oh, okay, Tina and Artie are still dating in this dimension.

Mike doesn’t seem too happy about it, but it’s none of Kurt’s business.

“Whatever, I’m still mad at you two for not giving me dibs on the attic,” Sam says jokingly.

“Fuck off, Hummer gave you dibs,” Matt says.

“Right. Yeah. I did,” Kurt says when he sees Sam giving him a very happy look. Dibs must be something good.

“But so yeah, since the Waffles are on Reading Room duty, can we go to the Murder Shop & Stop?” Mike asks Kurt.

“Racist is better than Murder when it comes to snacks, though,” Sam says and both Matt and Mike shoot him an _‘are-you-kidding look’_ , so Sam quickly realises what he was suggesting and he apologises.

“Trouty, you and your white ass can go to the Racist Shop & Stop whenever you like, but Changling and I’d rather go the Murder one since the others are, you know, racist,” Matt sighs.

“Back to the snacks, guys,” Mike says before it gets out of hand, “Don’t forget to buy some vegetarian snacks for Rachel or she’ll have a diva fit.”

All men, including Kurt, groan at the thought of Rachel being a diva.

They keep talking about snacks. Then, strangely enough, the conversation changes into a heated debate about finding a thousand roaches or a person in the attic.

* * *

Jesse St. James works harder than God in every dimension. This means that he demands a practise the moment they get back on campus.

“We literally just won a game, man,” Puck sighs as he unlocks the door to an awful looking frat house, “And he wants to have another morning practise tomorrow. Saint is fucking nuts. I don’t even know why we made Saint captain. He’s not even our best player. He’s on the second line with me.”

“He just wants a shit ton of ice time since he’s graduating,” Rory says.

“So am I but I am not that fucking stupid,” Puck says and he opens the door to this place.

“Haus sweet Haus,“ Matt says and he and Mike immediately go upstairs.

Kurt shakes his head when he sees the state of this place. Artie laughs when he sees it. “It’s not coming home without Hummer hating the state of the Haus,” he says and he wheels past him. They’ve made make-shift ramps for him everywhere. “Gotta be honest, dude, sometimes I’m really happy I don’t live in this hell hole.”

“Hey! No bad-mouthing our humble abode,” Sam says, “I can’t wait to live in here. Ganzy, I’ll be your neighbour next year. And Lynner and Puck Jr. will take the attic. ‘Swawesome.” Sam pats Rory on the back. Kurt has trouble distinguishing everyone due to the nicknames.

Saint is Jesse, Changling is Mike, Puck is Puck, Trouty is Sam, Ganzy is Rory, and Kurt assumes that Puck Jr. refers to Puck’s younger brother Jake, but he has no clue who Lynner is. Artie is Wheels, which is not very original.

“I thought you wanted the attic,” Artie says but Sam just sighs.

“Hummer’s room in the Haus is better than no room in the Haus, Wheels.”

Kurt fights the urge to tidy everything up and he goes upstairs to his room. It’s not hard to find, since he put a sign saying ‘KURT’S ROOM’ on the door.

Contrary to the rest of the Haus, Kurt’s room is very tidy. Kurt doesn’t have long to think about it, because the others are expecting him downstairs for practice and Kurt doesn’t know a thing about hockey. He knows about sport in general and he knows about football, but hockey?

He finds his computer and he Googles. Wikipedia has a lot of information, but Kurt soon finds out that he doesn’t know his position on the ice, so he can’t really focus on one section. He learns a lot in the small hour he has but then Kurt grabs a bag with hockey equipment and he joins the others.

They walk through campus, which is gorgeous. Eventually, they end up at a skating rink named Faber. Kurt’s expecting to go to the locker room, but instead they go to some kind of lounge. Other players are already there.

Jesse is holding a puck and he says with a posh voice: “Bring forth the player!”

Out of nowhere, people have their hockey sticks in their hands. Kurt’s happy to see that two strangers have pride tape on their sticks. He’s about to take out his stick when Ryder and Jake grab him by the shoulders and push him towards Jesse.

“Kurt ‘Hummer’ Elizabeth Hummel!” Jesse says, almost sounding proud, “Today, we honour your achievement by putting this-” he shakes the puck “-into the winning puck bin. This puck is especially special, because it barely happens that one of the d-men has the game winner.”

“Amen,” Joe says.

“Also, this puck sends us into the NCAA Hockey Division I Championship,” Jesse continues, “A successful streak during the ECAC playoffs will hopefully bring us an equally successful streak during the Championship, which will bring us to the Frozen Four, and that will hopefully bring us a national title!”

All the others cheer and hoot and Kurt feels some sense of pride.

He knows that technically it wasn’t really him who scored, but it’s nice to be appreciated by a group of jocks for a change.

Jesse hands the puck to Kurt so that Kurt can put it in the winning puck bin. When he does, everyone applauds.

“We’re gonna win this Frozen Four!” Jesse roars, “Let’s practise!”

* * *

Practise is…

Well, it is awful.

Kurt is one of the defensemen. He’s part of a pair. Mike is the other defenseman. Matt is the goalie, and Sam, one of the strangers, and Rory are forwards. Sam is a left winger, Rory is the right winger, and the stranger is the center.

The stranger’s last name is McCarthy. Kurt can read it on the back of his jersey. People also call him ‘Cheerio’.

They are the first line of the Samwell Male Hockey Team, and during practise, they are up against the second line and the back-up goalie.

Joe is the back-up goalie (and everyone seriously calls him ‘Jesus’, holy shit), Ryder and Jake are the defensemen, and Puck, Jesse, and a stranger are the forwards.

Now, Kurt knows how to skate, since he and Blaine go skating during the winter. He also knows that his body is trained for this sport, because the version of him in this dimension is a very good player. He can also use his hockey stick easily.

He just doesn’t know the damn rules, and he can’t just ask the others! Everyone’s still happy about him scoring the winning goal during the roadie. It’d be weird for Kurt to suddenly forget how to play hockey. Kurt’s sure that if he'd known the rules, he’d be a great player.

And sure, he’s looked up hockey on Wikipedia, but he only had an hour and he doesn’t remember everything.

He sucks, and everyone is confused.

But the thing is… everyone is also very supportive.

During the practise, people pat his back. Sam hugs him tightly. Some of the strangers give him supporting looks. Mike has told him it’s okay and even Jesse has reassured Kurt that it’s okay to have an ‘off day’.

Glee club is family.

Glee club has been family in every dimension so far.

But the Samwell Male Hockey Team truly is the definition of family.

Sure, it doesn’t fully take away the embarrassment, since Kurt has the feeling that he should excel in this, but it’s nice to know that these guys have his back. After all, the catchphrase of the team is #GotYourBack and these guys truly mean it.

Jesse gives Kurt some time to breathe by taking him off the ice. One of the strangers plays with Mike. The guy is not first or second line material, but for now, he’s better than Kurt.

Kurt decides to take a walk around the rink. Faber is wonderful. He’s at the stands and he watches his team play. There have been some more line changes, so that others can practise as well. Cheerio is still on the ice and he’s really fast.

“He’s named Mason.”

Kurt jumps in shock. A random guy is talking to him and he motions towards Cheerio. “His name is Mason McCarthy. He’s named Cheerio because he was a high school cheerleader before he changed to hockey. He’s a great player.”

Kurt is speechless. How does this man know that Kurt doesn’t know his own team?

“Then you got the center forward on the second line?” the guy continues, “That’s Spencer Porter. His boyfriend Alistair is the dude on the bench with the long ginger hair. He doesn’t have a last name since the glee writers never gave him one, so the writer of this current AU chose to give him a crappy nickname based on his first name. Next to him is Rodrick Meeks. He’s cool. No idea what position he has, though. It was never written down. The other strangers are all unnamed strangers who are here with the sole purpose to fill the team. They’re supposed to be unnamed strangers with no character arc and there’s no room in this AU for Myron or Skylar.”

“… Okay.”

Kurt kind of understood this guy up until the last part.

“Excuse me, but, uhm, how did you know that I-”

“Piss off, Johnson!” Mike suddenly yells. He’s walking towards Kurt and the guy who’s apparently called Johnson. “Now is not the time for your bullshit.”

Johnson shrugs, but he leaves.

“Sorry for that, Hummer. The last thing you need after a bad practise is his existential bullshit,” Mike says grumpily, “The dude’s just creepy and a straight-up liar. He claims that he’s the old goalie on the Samwell Male Hockey Team, but there’s nothing of him in our old roster. But then he says something like ‘oh, but I am from the other side of the crossover’, like, what does that even mean? Crossover of what?”

Mike leads Kurt back to the bench where they rest together. Others still shoot Kurt reassuring looks and Rodrick Meeks puts his arm around Kurt.

They got his back.

* * *

Matt and Mike don’t mention the awful practise during their trip to the ‘Murder’ Shop & Stop. Kurt appreciates it. Instead, they talk about the upcoming Kegster. Judging from the conversation, Kurt can safely say that a Kegster is a frat party.

Why else would they be talking about loud music, booze, sex, and a lot of unhealthy (and partly vegetarian) snacks?

Mike and Matt mostly talk, so they don’t notice Kurt’s confusion. Kurt likes it. He never really got to know Matt in high school and now he regrets it. He knows that the Mike from his dimension still talks to him. They talk a lot in every dimension.

In this one, they also talk about finals. After all, they’re college students.

“I am going to Founder’s tomorrow to study,” Mike says when Matt asks him about his study schedule.

“At least you go there to study. Man, remember when we found Port and Ali making out between the books in the sociology section?” Matt laughs at the memory.

“Waffle romance,” Mike says.

“I think it’s cute,” Kurt says.

He knows that Port and Ali refer to Spencer and Alistair. They are two of the strangers, together with their first line forward Mason, and another guy named Rodrick. Kurt now knows this thanks to the strange Johnson.

Spencer and Alistair were the other players with the pride tape and Spencer is the center forward on the second line. Kurt doesn’t know why they are part of the New Directions side of this story, but he likes them. Maybe they are future students? But that’s crazy, since the glee club no longer exists.

Well, maybe they only exist in this dimension. It’s weird, but Kurt’s not complaining. Spencer and Alistair don’t seem like a perfect fit, but they’re still cute together.

Kurt’s deep in thoughts while Matt and Mike continue to talk about Founder’s. Eventually, their reach the ‘Murder’ Shop & Stop and they basically raid the sections filled with snacks.

“After all, Puck invited, like, a shit ton of people. I think most of the collegiate sport teams are invited, except for the LAX bros.”

“Obviously.”

They load everything in their shopping bags and they are ready to walk back to the Haus.

“Alright, general plan for tomorrow!” Mike says.

“One, wake up in our ‘swawesome attic,” Matt says back.

“Two, breakfast and that shit.”

“Three, study because fuck college life.”

“Four, getting ready for Kegster.”

“Five, Kegster!”

“Sounds about right.”

Kurt’s plan will be different, though. Tomorrow, he’ll look for Blaine and the book. He can’t tell them that, so instead he just nods his head and Mike and Matt high five.

* * *

The next day, Kurt doesn’t find Blaine.

Oh no, instead he finds Wes chilling by some sort of lake called the Pond. He’s reading a book in deep concentration, so he almost topples over when Kurt calls out his name.

“Wes!” Then Kurt reminds himself that he might not know Wes in this dimension. “You’re Wes, right?”

Wes looks a bit disorientated, but he nods his head and makes an affirming noise.

“Hey, look, this might sound a bit random, but do you know a guy named Blaine? You know, kind of short? Black hair? Triangle-shaped eyebrows?”

Wes nods again. Now, he’s looking a bit confused.

“Well, uhm, I met Blaine during this seminar that we’re both taking and I once asked him for these crazy specific notes, but I live in a house filled with madness and one of my teammates put it in one of those paper shredders.”

Kurt had no idea where this story is heading, but now he’s just rolling with it.

“And the thing is, I don’t really know Blaine that well, but I did see him walk around with you around Founder’s and I heard him call you Wes and man, I know this is a long-shot, but could you maybe ask him to hand me those notes again? We need it for a group project that determines a huge part of our final grade.”

Great, now there’s also a project.

This story is getting more elaborate than expected, so Kurt’s not surprised that Wes still looks very confused.

“What seminar?” Wes asks. He’s shooting Kurt a suspicious look.

“Arts and Politics 101 from professor July,” Kurt straight-up lies. He hopes he’s said it with enough confidence to make Wes believe him.

Wes frowns. “Hm, I didn’t know Blaine was following a seminar like that, but it sounds like something he’d be interested in.”

But Wes takes out his phone and he gives it to Kurt. It has Blaine’s number on it.

“Thank you so much!” Kurt says and he puts the number in his phone. He knows Blaine’s number by heart, but this is a different one. He gives the phone back to Wes and says: “You’re a life saver.”

“Why would your teammate put notes through a paper shredder though?” Wes asks. He’s still a bit suspicious.

“Uhm, I am from the hockey team,” Kurt deadpans.

All the confusion and suspicion leaves Wes’s face. “Oh, that explains a lot.”

 _That_ confuses Kurt, but he thanks Wes instead. He walks back towards the Haus and he presses call.

Blaine doesn’t answer.

Kurt tries again, but no answer. Kurt tries several times, but Blaine won’t pick up.

Kurt’s this close to throwing the phone into the Samwell River in frustration.

It’s time for plan B: focus on the book first. He decides to go to the Samwell University library. Founder’s might have the book. He looks up a map of the campus and he sighs when he sees that Founder’s is located on the other side of the campus.

Kurt turns around and he finds his way to Founder’s. Luckily, he’s still close to the Lake Quad and the Pond, so he’s relatively close to Founder’s.

Founder’s is crowded with students preparing for their exams, so Kurt sees a lot of familiar faces. As expected, Matt and Mike are there. He sees Artie at the computers. Joe, Rodrick and Ryder are at the small coffee corner. They look like they need the caffeine.

Kurt’s not here for caffeine. He’s here for the book.

Founder’s is huge, so he decides to just ask a librarian for help. The book doesn’t have a title, but Kurt’s very detailed description of the book does ring a bell.

“Yes, part of the fictional section,” the librarian says. He types something in a computer. Then he shakes his head. “Unfortunately, someone else took the book with them yesterday. We can reserve it for you for when it gets back.”

It’s not the news Kurt wanted to hear, but it’s still great news. He really hopes that Blaine has found the book before him. Due to the roadie and practice and the murder run, Kurt didn’t have the time to go looking for it, but maybe Blaine did have the time.

Kurt politely declines the librarian’s offer and he goes back to the Haus. He tries calling Blaine again with no success.

Maybe, just maybe, he’ll run into Blaine later today.

* * *

It’s nine in the evening. Kurt’s holding a beer and he’s asking if anyone has heard of someone named Blaine Anderson. No one seems to really listen, since the music is deafening and many are tipsy.

It’s only nine o’clock.

This Kegster is off to a great start.

There are a lot of people kissing as well. As expected, Rachel and Jesse are making out on a gross looking green couch. Even though he’s captain, Jesse doesn’t live at the Haus, since he’s a snob, but he’s still around for the parties. Tina is sitting on Artie’s lap. Spencer has Alistair pushed against a wall. Kurt saw Puck go upstairs with three other women. Brittany has taken off her shirt and Santana is yelling: “That’s my girlfriend!”. Mercedes and Sam are keeping it light compared to others, but Sam has his hands underneath Mercedes’s shirt. Mason is trying to flirt with a woman from the Samwell Female Hockey team named Jane while his sister Madison looks unhappy. Even Rory has taken off his shirt so that some women (and probably also men) can admire him.

The New Directions.

Horny as ever.

Rodrick had already asked Kurt if he was looking for a puck bunny. Kurt would love to join the party, but Blaine really is nowhere to be seen. Kurt finishes his beer and he almost decides to try this weird tub juice that Puck and Jake are brewing in the, well, _tub_ , but he decides to stay sober in case Blaine does show up, so he gets a glass of water in the kitchen.

He looks outside the kitchen window and he knows he’s made the right decision when he sees Blaine walking towards the Haus.

He looks very scared when he sees the state of the Haus. The Haus is already gross and fragile, but now it’s filled with a lot of people.

Kurt runs towards the entrance just in time. The door opens and Blaine sees him.

“Kurt!” he yells over the music.

“Blaine!” Kurt yells back and he points up, “Upstairs?!”

Blaine nods and he follows Kurt upstairs. The guys have put tape upstairs to show that this area is off-limits for people who are uninvited. Puck’s room is across Kurt’s room, so they hear some noises they wish they could unhear, but when they’re in the room and the door is shut, it’s relatively silent.

Blaine lets out a deep breath.

“Wow, that was intense and I was only in the party zone for five seconds.”

“Welcome to the Kegster,” Kurt says, “How did you find me?”

Blaine’s giving Kurt a look he can’t quite understand.

“What?”

“Kurt, you’re on the hockey team,” Blaine says as if it’s obvious, “You just had a successful ECAC playoff run. I apparently follow sports in every dimension, since it’s on my phone. Your face is on the official Samwell website. I found out you were on your way back from a roadie yesterday, so I started searching for the book and I found it in the library.”

Blaine opens his bag and he takes out the book.

“Yes, I was hoping you were the one who took it from the library.”

“I also already put my object on the page. It’s my keychain of the creepy school mascot,” Blaine opens the book and okay, yeah, that mascot is a bit weird. It’s a cartoonish well with big eyes and legs. It looks like a bucket is flying around. Its name is written on the keychain: Wellie the dancing well.

“I also read on my phone that the hockey team was throwing a big party so I assumed you’d be here and I was right.”

“Speaking of phones!” Kurt says loudly, “You didn’t pick up your phone! I kept calling you.”

Blaine’s eyes widen.

“That was you?”

“Blaine!”

“Look, a strange number starts calling me. I don’t want to mess up the life of Blaine from Samwell, so I decided it could wait. My own phone doesn’t work, but the Blaine from this dimension has a phone as well. If it were really important, he, or I, would’ve put a contact name in the phone!”

“Oh Blaine,” Kurt shakes his head. “This is why you can never get a job interview.”

“Oh.” Blaine frowns. “Yeah.”

Kurt looks back at the book and he immediately recognizes the simple shape. It’s a hockey puck. Kurt has a feeling the book is not looking for an ordinary hockey puck.

“I think it wants my game winning puck,” Kurt tells Blaine.

“Alright. Where do we find it?”

“At Faber.”

“That’s the hockey rink, right?”

Kurt nods.

Blaine claps his hands. “Alright. Let’s go!”

Kurt slightly tilts his head. “How about we wait for a little while? We have the room to ourselves. It’s time to party and you know how these New Directions parties usually go.”

“That’s a terrible pick-up line,” Blaine says, but he already starts unbuttoning his shirt.

* * *

Asking Artie for the keys to Faber was very easy. Artie was distracted by Tina anyway.

Kurt and Blaine walk hand in hand to Faber. The book is in Blaine’s trusty bag. The sun is slowly setting and the campus looks gorgeous in this light.

“Where exactly are we?” Kurt asks.

“Samwell, my love.”

“But what is Samwell?” Kurt continues, “I have never heard of a place called Samwell before, and from the looks of it, this place isn’t some kind of unknown community college. Samwell is part of the ECAC after all.”

“I think this is another fictional setting,” Blaine says and he looks around as well. They’ve just crossed the Samwell River and they’re close to North Quad. Faber is located a bit more up north.

“The words in the book are ‘Check, Please!’. I wish I knew it. I want to know more about this fictional setting. Same goes for Carry On and The Good Place and their settings.”

“And I really want to play The Sims 4,” Blaine says as a throwback to their time in San Myshuno.

“I want to play Pokémon for real this time.”

“Speaking of Pokémon, I found a name for the Sinnoh Region Book Guide. In this dimension, Gilbert is the Dean of Students. I heard David mentioning him,” Blaine says.

“Great. Now again, what is Samwell University?”

“Check, Please! does sound familiar,” Blaine says and he furrows his brow in thought.

They walk in silence so that Blaine can have some time to think.

“Aha!” he suddenly yells, startling Kurt a bit, “It is a hockey webcomic! At dance class, there are a couple of hockey fans and we’ve talked several times and one of them reads this comic. We’re in a webcomic. Oh my God, we totally have to look it up when we get home!”

Kurt nods eagerly. “First, we have to get home. I really am longing for my own dimension. I think we’ve been gone for almost a month.”

Blaine whistles. “Wow, I hadn’t realised we’ve been gone for so long. Time sees to fly by when you’re in a different setting every other day. Watching Wes die feels like ages ago. I still feel a weird sense of relief every time I see another _alive_ version of him. And I will probably avoid the New York Public Library when we get back.”

“We’ve seen some bad stuff,” Kurt says. Heck, he was kidnapped in the previous dimension and held for ransom. Kurt doesn’t think he’ll be comfortable again in a locked room without having a key. He also has to work out a possible anxiety problem.

“Man, we need to find that puck.”

Kurt uses Artie’s keys to unlock Faber and he leads Blaine to the player’s lounge. “My hockey puck is in that winning puck bin.”

Kurt opens the lid of the bin and he sees a lot of rubber pucks. They don’t really mark the pucks in this team, so this is going to be a stretch.

Blaine also looks at the pucks. “Uhm, should we just start putting random pucks on the page?”

They don’t really have any other options, so they try putting a puck on a page, puck by puck. There are a lot of pucks in this bin. Sure, the Samwell Female Hockey Team might be arguably better that the Samwell Male Hockey Team, but the latter still knows how to score.

When one of the pucks finally disappears, they both let out a sigh of relief.

Blaine turns the page and Kurt quickly puts back the other pucks into the bin.

“’Parallel worlds’,” he hears Blaine says.

“Parallel worlds?”

Blaine makes an agreeing sound.

“Then what are all these?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually put a lot of thought in creating the hockey team and I wrote down my entire thought process, so if you’re interested in things like “why is Matt the goalie?” or “why does Rory have such a crap nickname?”, the answers lie [here](http://forabeatofadrum.tumblr.com/post/182355397398/gleeomgcp-crossover-team).


	23. Parallel worlds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here it is… our final dimension…
> 
> This is by far the longest chapter that I’ve written, but there’s a reason for that. So far, I’ve been alternating between Kurt and Blaine’s POVs when it comes to chapters, but I’ve always wanted the last dimension to have both their POVs, so that they could both get an equal amount of chapters, since the last one/epilogue is definitely going to be from both their point of views.
> 
> You can basically say that this is two chapters in one. I considered splitting it anyway, since I finished Kurt’s before Blaine’s, but I wanted the 24 Advent chapters.
> 
> We’re nearing the end, and it’s not gonna be easy…
> 
>  _TW: mentions of depression, implied past suicide attempt (not_ our _Kurt and Blaine) and… well… Finn._
> 
> See the end notes for more information.

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 23: Wire**

**Dimension twenty-one: Parallel worlds**

* * *

Kurt has a strange feeling of déjà vu when he wakes up in what looks like his childhood bedroom. It’s the house his dad bought after he and Carole got married and it is clearly his room, but there are some kind of differences.

Just small ones.

He looks out of the window and he sees Lima, Ohio, and he immediately feels depressed at the thought of him waking up in this place. He has to be visiting his dad- he can’t live in Lima. He’s spent so hard getting out of Lima.

He goes to the bathroom to get ready and he catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror. He immediately looks back at his reflection. He’s older.

Time has always been weird in these dimensions. Sometimes it feels like they’re in a near-future, sometimes it feels like they’re in a different season. Sometimes it feels like nothing has changed time-wise.

But now he’s definitely older. And he’s in Lima.

His worst fears are confirmed when he goes downstairs. There were only slight differences to his bedroom, but downstairs, everything is different. The furniture is his taste, the decorations are his taste, the placement of everything is his taste.

There’s no denying it.

He lives here.

 _No_ , he thinks and he sinks to the ground _, There can’t be a place where I didn’t get out of here._

After calming down, he decides to get back to business. He has to figure out why he’s here and where to find Blaine. The book said the words ‘parallel worlds’, but that doesn’t make sense. What parallel?

Kurt forces himself to make breakfast. Just because he’s stuck in this situation doesn’t mean that he has to give up. He’ll find Blaine. He’ll find that book. He’ll go home, back to New York.

There’s a laptop lying on the breakfast table and Kurt uses it to learn everything he can. He didn’t get into NYADA, but he also didn’t go to New York to try again. He finds photos of himself at Lima University with Finn and, to his surprise, Rachel.

He now works at a clothing store. He doesn’t even own it.

There are some e-mails from others. Rachel now lives with Jesse in Chicago and she’s a somewhat successful journalist. Santana and Dani are also in Lima, but Kurt can’t find out why. After all, they met Dani in New York.

Brittany? No clue. Absolutely no clue.

There’s an e-mail from Mercedes about Puck. Puck’s been in jail and he recently got out. That’s all he can find on his friends. Mercedes signs her e-mail with Mercedes Jones-Evans, so at least they got together.

There’s also an e-mail from Mr. Schue.

Great. There’s a glee club reunion later today and everyone’s lives are in shambles.

This dimension looks like a dimension where dreams don’t come true.

* * *

Kurt isn’t scared to go back to McKinley. After all, he’s done it several times. In the midst of that hell was one small spot of light, namely the glee club. All of McKinley can burn down, except for the choir room and the auditorium.

So he’s not too sad about the reunion.

He just doesn’t want to face the fact that there’s a dimension where they’ve all lost.

Kurt’s about to head out when the doorbell rings. Confused, he goes to open the door, but when he does, it feels like he’s been slapped in the face.

“Ready to go? I can’t wait to see our friends again. Dude, it’s been way too long.”

Finn is standing in front of him, alive and well.

Kurt doesn’t think clearly. Instantly, he slams the door shut. It hits Finn in the face and Kurt can hear Finn yelp in pain. Kurt slides down the door and he starts crying.

This has to be some kind of joke, right?

This is a dream, right?

Kurt has seen over twenty different dimensions and Finn was dead in every one of them, but in this one, he’s alive and well and he’s banging on the door.

“Kurt, open up! What the hell, man!”

Kurt’s spent over a year grieving and moving on. He’s finally at a place where he feels like he can go on with his life. He will always miss Finn, but he’s healed. He’s accepted that Finn is dead and that he is never coming back, and it took him so long to do that, and it hurt so much.

And now he’s banging on his door.

“Kurt, are you- you’re crying! I’m breaking in if necessary.”

Very alive and very well.

He looked older. Kurt only got a small glimpse of him before he shut the door, but Kurt noticed that he got a bit older.

Finn gets to grow older in this dimension.

“I know where you keep your spare key!”

Kurt’s still crying against the front door, but Finn has always been the physically strongest of the two of them. Kurt can hear Finn unlocking the door and the next thing he knows, Finn is pushing the door open, shoving Kurt aside.

“Bro,” he says and he crouches next to Kurt. Finn doesn’t ask questions. He just wraps his arms around Kurt and he lets him cry.

* * *

Kurt looks awful. It’s clear that he’s been crying, but he doesn’t care. Finn is driving them and he nervously looks over every now and then. Finn hasn’t asked what is wrong. He just assumes that Kurt will tell him.

But Kurt can’t tell him.

Finn talks a lot during the drive to fill up the silence. He doesn’t expect Kurt to reply, which is a good thing, since Kurt has no idea what he is talking about.

“So Jess kept reassuring me that she really wanted to come with me, you know? I think she’s going to visit mom so that she feels less guilty.”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t want her to feel guilty, so I lied to her and said that most of us probably won’t bring our partners with us anyway. But let’s be real, Kurt. We both know that Jesse will strut into that choir room like it’s his own. I don’t see what Rachel sees in that git. He probably does it cause he thinks it’ll hurt me. Man, I’m over Rachel and she’s not some price to obtain and show off, you know?”

“Uh-uhm.”

“Like, shit, yeah, I kinda had that mindset in high school as well, cause I played with Quinn and Rachel’s hearts as if they weren’t real people, but I learned from my mistakes. Bro, I was such a douche in high school. I can’t believe that some saw me as some kind of hero or leader, cause I sucked!”

Finn laughs a little bit.

“I am also excited to see Puck, fresh out of jail. Is that weird?”

“… uh.”

Finn nods to himself. “Yeah, that is weird. I hope that this time, he’ll really turn his life around. Life’s too short to waste it. It can be over any day.”

Kurt closes his eyes and he tries not to cry. Today is going to be awful.

* * *

Mercedes pulls him into a bone crushing hug.

“Oh Kurt, it is so good to see you.”

Kurt hugs her back, since it is always good to see her, no matter what dimension.

Sam does a mock salute and then he takes Mercedes’s hand.

It also becomes clear that Tina and Artie are married in this dimension. Kurt can hear them talk to Puck. They live in Lima and Tina is currently going back to school. Artie is working an office job. They seem extremely pleased, though.

As expected, Rachel and Jesse strut towards Kurt with a lot of confidence. Finn rolls his eyes when Jesse starts talking about the glamorous life in Chicago.

Kurt does a double take when Brittany introduces him to her husband. He has no idea who this dude is, but Brittany isn’t the only one with a spouse Kurt doesn’t know. Santana is happily married to Dani, but Kurt still can’t figure out why they are in Lima.

Mike and his girlfriend are living in Columbus and he’s studying medicine, which surprises Kurt. The biggest surprise is probably the fact that Matt arrives with his wife in tow. 

People keep dropping in and everyone is talking. Kurt listens and there’s one thing he notices: no one has achieved their dreams. Brittany never danced, but she’s a mathematical genius. Instead of following his passion, Mike is becoming a medic. Artie isn’t a well-known director, but he works in an office. Mercedes isn’t a popstar, and Sam was never half naked on a side of a bus, but they seem very content with their simple lives.

In fact, everyone seems very happy with their simple lives.

Kurt… Well, he can’t really wrap his head around it. He talks about his own life and everyone seems very happy for him. Kurt doesn’t have much to say, since he didn’t really look into the life of the Kurt of this dimension, but luckily, others seem to fill in the blanks for him.

Kurt studied design at UoL. Since he never had a back-up plan, he had no idea what to do after he got rejected from NYADA. So he applied for the first study he could think of. Rachel got rejected as well and she did the same. She applied for journalism. Finn is becoming a teacher. It’s not the grandiose dreams they wished of, but they did it.

Finn and Rachel are happy in their respective careers. They’re not successful, but they’re happy. The same can be said for Kurt. Judging by the other people’s reactions, the Kurt from this dimension is very happy.

Joe enters the choir room and people immediately ask him how he’s been.

“Happy,” he says with a big smile.

“Aren’t we all?” Tina says.

Kurt forces a smile.

Everyone in this dimension is happy, even though their dreams didn’t come true. Kurt included.

Kurt takes a deep breath and he tells himself to get over it. This is not his life, and if the Kurt from this dimension truly is happy, then Kurt shouldn’t try to meddle with it. He’s going to put on a smile and he’s going to survive this reunion. All will be fine.

Then, the choir room door opens again. Blaine arrives.

Kurt feels ecstatic. He’s found Blaine. He tries to talk to him, but others beat him to it.

Puck immediately flings an arm around Blaine. “And if it isn’t our Warbler!”

Kurt tries to make eye contact, but Blaine is almost buried in a group hug. Blaine says hi to everyone till his eyes eventually land on Kurt. Kurt smiles widely, but to Kurt’s confusion, Blaine seems a bit hesitant to greet him.

“Hey Kurt,” Blaine says. He says it nicely, but Kurt knows him. It’s a bit hesitant and gauged. Something is wrong.

Kurt doesn’t have time to play these games, so he immediately pulls Blaine into a hug. “I am so glad to see you!”

Blaine tenses in Kurt’s grip, so Kurt let’s go. Something is definitely wrong.

“Uhm, I am glad to see you too.”

“Blaine, is everything alright?”

Blaine tilts his head to the side. He looks like an adorable puppy. A concerned, anxious puppy. “Yes. Sorry, I just- we haven’t seen each other in so long.”

Kurt puts his hand on Blaine’s shoulder, and Blaine tenses again. “Blaine, talk to me? What is going on? I know this is weird, but we’ll soon find the book.”

Blaine swats Kurt’s hand away and Kurt feels hurt. “What book?”

Something is very, _very_ wrong. Is this… is it possible that Kurt got separated from his Blaine? Is this someone Kurt doesn’t know?

When the choir room door opens again, Kurt’s worst fears are confirmed.

“You left your damn bag in the car, babe!”

Both Kurt and Blaine turn around.

That’s not the bag Blaine’s been carrying with him throughout all the dimensions.

“Oh!” Blaine looks a bit embarrassed, but he takes the bag from Sebastian and he leans in to kiss him.

Kurt… well, he feels frozen on the spot. He’s in a dimension where dreams don’t come true. He’s in a dimension where Blaine is dating Sebastian. To make it even worse…

“Let me see it, oh my God!” Rachel basically tackles Sebastian before grabbing his left hand. Sebastian is wearing a beautiful ring. “I still can’t believe you said yes!”

Sebastian holds up his left hand and he wiggles his fingers. “Girl, you better believe it,” Sebastian says and he’s beaming. Blaine looks equally happy.

“Dude, when’s the big day?” Sam yells out.

“Oh, you’ll hear soon enough!” Blaine says, and he’s so incredibly happy, it hurts to see how happy he is at the thought of being engaged to Sebastian.

Everyone is once again talking to Blaine. They’re congratulating him. They’re hugging him. They’re even happy to see Sebastian.

Kurt’s left behind, frozen on the spot. This can’t be happening. This isn’t his dimension, he knows that, but seeing this almost makes Kurt cry.

Mercedes turns around to look at Kurt. She frowns. “Are you okay?”

Kurt shakes his head. “I need some air.”

He leaves the choir room before Mercedes can say another word.

* * *

“The bleachers is a terrible place to cry, don’t you think?”

At the sudden voice, Kurt almost topples over. He looks up and he sees a stranger standing next to him. He’s an old, balding man. Maybe he’s a teacher here?

God, it must look pathetic to this teacher to see an alumnus cry while hiding underneath the bleachers.

To Kurt’s horror, the man doesn’t leave him alone. Instead, he sits down next to him and it looks like he’s going to talk.

“Are you okay?”

A part of Kurt wants to give the man a cold shoulder, but if there’s one thing Kurt has learned by now is that sometimes, it is okay to talk about stuff.

“My life is in shambles.”

It is not the full truth, but this is how Kurt feels.

“This is not what my life is supposed to look like. And everyone around me is acting as if our lives haven’t been derailed,” he says sadly, “But the worst thing is that I am without my fiancé. Everything is wrong with this life!”

The man awkwardly pats Kurt on the shoulder. “There, there, Kurt. You’ve just seen a lot of different dimensions, so you were bound to end up in one that’s less ideal.”

Kurt hates that that makes sense, but that doesn’t make it okay. He’s about to say so when he suddenly realises that this man is not supposed to know that Kurt has travelled through dimensions. In fact, he shouldn’t even know his name.

Kurt jumps up in shock and yells: “Who are you?”

The man gets up as well. He dusts off his pants and he holds out his hand.

“I suppose that I am the headmaster of McKinley in this dimension, but I think it’s time to just introduce myself as who I am.”

Kurt doesn’t want to shake it, but the man continues talking.

“The name is Harvey, but I think you know of me by my last name, which is Gilbert.”

Gilbert.

Holy shit, the man is right. There’s been a Gilbert in every dimension. Kurt and Blaine have been keeping track of all the times the name has appeared. They’ve never met, but Kurt definitely knows of him. Kurt slowly shakes Gilbert’s hand.

“You… How do you know about the dimension hopping?”

Gilbert laughs. “Dimension hopping? Is that what you’re calling it? That’s neat.” He then shakes his head while smiling. “I am the reason you are able to travel, or hop, between dimensions. I didn’t create these dimensions, since they all exist without my interference, but I gave you and your fiancé the bridge between them.”

“Are you God?”

Gilbert looks a bit funny. “Do you believe in God?”

Without hesitation, Kurt says that he does not.

Gilbert shrugs. “Then, I am not God.”

Maybe Gilbert is trying to be reassuring, but this entire thing keeps getting more and more complicated.

“What is this dimension?” Kurt asks, “And where is Blaine? My Blaine?”

“Blaine is doing fine, I promise,” Gilbert says, “In fact, I suspect he will be here soon. Otherwise I’ll fetch him myself.”

“Then what is this?”

“This is a parallel world, Kurt. Didn’t you read the book?”

“I did,” Kurt immediately says, “But why is this place so terrible?”

Gilbert looks around. “Is it? Sure, no one has bothered to clean the spots underneath the bleachers, but apart from that, it’s not too bad.”

Kurt groans in annoyance. This man is playing a joke right now. Gilbert surely must understand what Kurt is referring to.

“You know what I mean, old man,” Kurt snaps, “This place is garbage. My dreams don’t come true, I am stuck in Lima, and Blaine is engaged to Sebastian!”

“And your brother is here,” Gilbert says and Kurt can feel the annoyance leave his body.

Finn is alive.

“… why would you put me through this?” Kurt asks eventually. He’ll always miss Finn, but he hasn’t been confronted by Finn’s death in ages. Kurt is moving on.

Gilbert looks sympathetic. “Again, Kurt, I do not make these dimensions. The universe has a strange way of doing things. But isn’t it good to see him again?”

“Of course!”

“But?”

“But it hurts!” Kurt yells out, “It hurts to see a version of your brother living a life that your brother got robbed off!”

Gilbert hands Kurt a small handkerchief. Kurt hadn’t even noticed that he’d started crying, but now he can’t stop. Gilbert rubs his back while Kurt cries.

“You know, Kurt… the version of you is incredibly happy with his mediocre life,” Gilbert says.

Kurt blows his nose and says: “Good for him. This isn’t my life, though.”

“I just hope you realise that alternatives aren’t necessarily a bad thing. You’re driven, and that is admirable, but there’s much more in life that focusing on your career,” Gilbert continues, “You’re incredibly busy. It’s okay to take time off as well. If you want to, you can even stay here and see it for yourself.”

Kurt shakes his head without hesitation. “I understand what you’re saying, but I want to go home.”

“Very well-”

“But I want to say goodbye first.”

* * *

Kurt finds Finn in the hallway. Finn smiles when he sees Kurt approaching.

Without missing a second, Kurt pulls Finn into a tight hug.

“Dude, you’ve been weird all day,” Finn says.

“Just… emotional, I guess,” Kurt says and he holds Finn in his grip, “Today has been a day filled with emotion and nostalgia and thinking about what could’ve been.”

“Are you dying?” Finn asks.

“No.”

“Am _I_ dying?”

He’s joking. Kurt can hear it in his voice, but Kurt uses all the strength he has left to stop himself from crying. Oh God, if only Finn knew. He tightens his grip.

“No,” Kurt says. It’s not a lie. Finn is not dead in this dimension. Finn has a future in this dimension. He has career opportunities and he’s dating. He’s alive. He’s living the life that got robbed from him in Kurt’s own dimension. “I just love you a lot, okay? Don’t ever forget that.”

“Love you too, little brother. Don’t _you_ ever forget that.” This time, Finn is the one who tightens the grip. Finn obviously doesn’t know what is going on, but he loves Kurt.

With great reluctance, Kurt let’s go of his brother and he looks at him one last time. He walks away from him and he waits till he’s far enough before he starts to cry. At least this time, he got to say goodbye.

He walks back to the bleachers. Gilbert will be waiting for him there to take him back to his Blaine. His dimension. He knows he could stay here. He knows he can watch Blaine be happy with someone else while also finding his own happiness. After all, the Kurt from this dimension is happy, even though his dreams didn’t come true.

After all, Finn is alive here.

But Kurt wants to go home. He wants to go back to his own Blaine, who’s probably looking for him as well. He wants to go back to their own dimension.

A dimension without Finn.

It feels like an awful trade. Blaine for Finn. But he has the feeling that Finn would understand and if he were given the choice between Kurt and the love of his life, Kurt would’ve wanted Finn to pick the latter.

“Kurt?”

Kurt turns around. Blaine’s standing there, looking worried. It is not his Blaine. This Blaine doesn’t love him, but Kurt still pulls him in a hug.

Blaine’s a bit taken aback, but instead of tensing, he hugs back.

“Goodbye, Blaine,” Kurt whispers.

“We’ll see each other again, Kurt,” Blaine says, sounding a bit confused.

“Of course,” Kurt lies. He won’t see this Blaine again and he doesn’t want to. He pulls back. “Say hi to Sebastian for me.”

Blaine’s looking as if Kurt’s speaking another language, but he nods. “Will do.”

Kurt awkwardly pats Blaine’s shoulder. “I should get going.”

Blaine has a weird look on his face, as if he wants to say something. Kurt waits for Blaine to find his words, but just when it looks like Blaine’s about to say it, he nods.

“Bye,” Kurt says again.

“Bye.”

Kurt walks away and he continues his small trip towards Gilbert. He looks back one last time and he sees Blaine looking sad and Blaine slowly shakes his head. This is the dimension of failed dreams and what could’ve been. It looks like Blaine’s realising it as well, at a different extent.

Blaine is genuinely happy with Sebastian and he’s very excited about their upcoming wedding, but there’s always a ‘what if’.

They could’ve been together.

But they’re not.

* * *

“Get me home.”

Gilbert nods knowingly. He snaps his fingers and everything arounds them starts changing. The bleachers disappear. It’s white. There’s only white.

Kurt and Gilbert are standing in this white area and the book is floating in front of Kurt.

“You can still go back,” Gilbert slowly says, “You can still try to make sure that the Kurt and Blaine from this world become a couple. Again, the Kurt from this dimension is extremely happy here. I know you might not believe it, but he is.”

Kurt nods, but he doesn’t want to.

“Blaine, this Blaine, is happy,” Kurt says solemnly, “He’s happy without me. I know he’s not my Blaine, but that is all I want for him.”

Gilbert nods.

“Are you, though?”

Kurt sighs. “I will be, as soon as my Blaine appears.”

Gilbert smiles. “Your wish is my command.”

* * *

***

* * *

Katy Perry’s voice is blasting from his radio alarm. Blaine snoozes it. He loves himself some Katy Perry, but he’s tired.

He can’t stay in bed for any longer, because Katy Perry starts playing again. Blaine gives up and he rubs the sleep out of his eyes.

He’s not in the loft. He’s in a very spacious and luxurious bedroom and the furniture is just his taste. He gets up and he’s wearing the silkiest pajama’s he’s ever owned. When he wants to get dressed, he sees that his wardrobe is filled with very expensive clothing from big brands.

Blaine likes this dimension so far.

There’s only Kurt missing. God, Kurt would die for this wardrobe. More reason to find him as soon as possible.

As always, in order to start his search for Kurt, he has to figure out where he is. He draws the curtains and he sees New York. It’s quite a view. The apartment he owns in this dimension is so luxurious, he has the perfect view of New York. It’s a real glow up from the loft. He leaves the bedroom to explore the rest of the apartment and Blaine quickly concludes that it is the apartment of his dreams.

He eventually finds a second bedroom, but instead of a bed, the room is flooded with trophies. Blaine’s eyes widen when he sees the Grammy’s, the Emmy’s and the Tony’s on the highest shelf.

He is successful. Holy shit. Blaine goes back to his kitchen to have some breakfast. He gets some coffee and something small to eat. An iPad is lying on a kitchen counter and Blaine immediately starts Googling his own name.

His Wikipedia page is long and very detailed. He doesn’t have time to read it all, but he gets the gist of it. He studied at NYADA, but dropped out after he got offered a Broadway main role. He won a Tony for Best Actor in a Musical for it.

Apart from his musical career, he has an entire music career. He won his first Grammy at twenty-one. He’s also won an Emmy for writing original music for a TV show and he’s won an Emmy for his own acting.

It’s a lot.

All his dreams come true. The Blaine from this dimension has got it all.

Blaine looks around. The kitchen is huge, luxurious, but very empty. He’s got it all, except for someone to share it with. It’s very clear that Kurt does not live here and his ‘Personal Life’ section on Wikipedia confirms that he’s single.

Blaine picks up the iPad again. He has the idea to Google Kurt. Even if Kurt isn’t famous, he must have some social media. He chugs his coffee and he types in Kurt’s name in the search bar, and as expected, Kurt pops up in the results.

A satisfied smile appears on Blaine’s face when he sees that Kurt has some success of his own. Kurt is an equally successful Broadway star and he has his own acclaimed fashion line. Blaine wants to read more about Kurt’s success and his personal life, but then the doorbell rings and a voice speaks over the intercom.

“Blaine, I’m coming up!” Wes says, “It’s the big day!”

Not a few minutes later, Wes knocks on the door and Blaine lets him in.

Wes starts laughing when he sees that Blaine’s still dressed in his pyjamas and that his hair is a mess. “Is this how you plan on going to the red carpet?”

Red carpet?

Of course, Blaine can’t let Wes know that he has no idea what is going on, so Blaine laughs it away and says: “Look, I slept through my alarm. I am a huge mess.”

Wes nods and he falls down on one of Blaine’s expensive couches. “Well, as your manager, it is my job to make sure everything goes well today. It’s time for you to show off that you deserve another Tony nomination. Luckily, it’s not as high profile as the actual award shows, but the make-up people will arrive in an hour, so you better get dressed. Trent put a lot of effort in the outfit.”

* * *

An hour later, people are doing Blaine’s hair and make-up. According to Wes, this little Tony Awards thing isn’t even that big, but for Blaine, this is huge. He’s never been in a position where people are doing his hair and make-up.

Wes keeps talking about the entire event.

“You’ve done this several times, you know how these things go! Just smile and chat with the others. Please tell Lin to reschedule your meeting next week, though. It clashes with the schedule, now that we have that last minute performance on the Late Night show.”

Blaine almost drops his jaw at the thought of him having a meeting with Lin-Manuel Miranda, or cancelling it.

“Oh, and Neil and David asked you to come over to their little house party, but I am not sure if that’s gonna work out, since you are also meeting Oprah the day after, and you need to be awake to meet Oprah.”

Okay, that’s even more extraordinary. What’s next, the Obamas?

“And Idina is still talking about the movie pitch. You need to call her back so that she can put in a good word. I can’t believe they’re making _another_ Frozen movie, but it might lead to the ETOG in a long run.”

Okay, not the Obamas, but Idina Menzel is also a big deal.

Wes snaps his fingers. “Oh, how could I forget!” he yells out, “Michelle still wants to know what song you’ll be singing at her book party. She explicitly told me to not ask Barack for a song suggestion, so in my eyes, it’s all up to you.”

Never mind.

Wes stops talking about the big names, which is a nice break, since Blaine needs some time to process all of this. Blaine can’t believe there’s a version of him with all this happiness. Sure, he’s always hoped for success, but actually experiencing it feels great. If only Kurt were here to share this with him.

The stylists finish the hair and make-up routine and Blaine quite likes his hair this way. Maybe he should switch it up when he goes back home. Blaine changes into his outfit. It’s not too formal, but it looks very good and proper.

When everything’s set, Wes asks to see Blaine in the bedroom.

“I am going to remind you of something you don’t like,” he says when Blaine closes the door, “You ready?”

“Uhm. Sure?”

Wes takes a deep breath.

“Kurt is going to be there, obviously, since he’s nominated as well.”

Blaine nods and he feels relieved. He now knows how to find Kurt. They only need the book and the objects, but they’ll discuss it at the event.

“Okay,” Blaine says.

Wes looks a bit confused. “You know… Kurt Hummel? Your ex-”

Wait. What?

“-who you’re still in love with, but you dumped him in order to focus on your career?”

Wait.

 _He did what_?

“He’s gonna be there with Adam Crawford, the man he’s happily married to?”

 _WHAT_?

“What?!” Blaine yells out.

Wes sighs sadly. “Yeah, I know. You knew he was going, but I guess I need to remind you just to be sure. You’ve been doing so well lately, and the last thing I want for you is some kind of relapse.”

Blaine wishes Wes would elaborate on Blaine dumping Kurt, but Wes just shakes his head and then the phone rings, telling them that the car is here. Wes ushers him downstairs, into the car, to the event.

* * *

The event is a lot to take in. According to Wes, it’s a relatively small thing, but for Blaine, this is a lot. He talks to the press. He poses for photo’s with his cast mates. He does fun trivia for Playbill and he gets to say “You’re watching the Broadway.com show!” for Broadwaycom’s YouTube channel.

It is very hard to improvise his answers, since he has no idea what show he’s in. Sure, he knows the title, but it’s a new Broadway show that he’s never heard of, so he keeps giving generic answers.

After all the formal red carpet stuff and some moving speeches, the guests can do whatever they want. Waiters and waitresses walk around with snacks and there’s a bar. Blaine sets out to find Kurt.

He eventually finds him with Adam. Blaine thinks it’s a bit weird that Kurt is casually talking to Adam, but maybe Kurt doesn’t want to give the Adam from this dimension the wrong impression.

Blaine taps Kurt on the shoulder, and when Kurt turns around, his face falls.

“Can we talk?” Blaine asks, eyeing Adam. This isn’t The Good Place, where they can get away with telling the truth.

But Kurt looks pissed and says: “No.”

Adam has a very protective look on his face and he takes Kurt’s hand. Kurt lets him.

“No, Kurt, this isn’t- it’s about the book, you know?” Blaine tries again.

Kurt looks confused and even more pissed. “Blaine, who the hell do you think you are? You are in absolutely no way entitled to my life, so don’t act like it. _You_ dumped me, remember? And frankly, I’m glad you did, cause otherwise I wouldn’t have met the actual man of my dreams.”

Kurt holds up their joined hands and Blaine stares at them in shock. Then it hits him.

This isn’t his Kurt.

Blaine slowly backs away. “I… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I…”

He trails off and he turns around. He walks away in a quick pace and his mind is reeling. This is the Kurt from this dimension and not only that. This Kurt hates him! Or the Blaine from this dimension. Whatever happens, Kurt hates him.

And it’s Blaine’s own fault. He let him go. He was selfish.

Someone grabs him by the arm and turns him around. He hopes it’s Kurt, but it is Wes and he looks a bit livid.

“What the hell, Blaine?” he whispers angrily. They’re in the middle of a crowd filled with Broadway A-listers, but no one pays attention to them.

“What?” Blaine whispers back, sounding irritated.

“You talked to Kurt?” Wes asks incredulously.

“So what?” Blaine says. He doesn’t want to think about it.

“I’ll tell you ‘so what’, Blaine. I was there when all of this went down, remember?” Wes whispers, “ _I_ was there to help you move out of the loft. _I_ was there when Kurt cried angry tears, because he felt so betrayed. _I_ was there when your depression kicked in because you realised what you’d done. _I_ was there when you tried to smile during your first Grammy win, but you couldn’t, cause the album was filled with desperate pleas towards Kurt to forgive you. _I_ was there to stop you from swallowing all those pills!”

Blaine starts feeling really uneasy and he looks around, but everyone is still in their own conversations.

“Kurt has moved on, mate,” Wes says, but he sounds less angry. In fact, he sounds sad. “You were doing so well. You were slowly moving on too. I know you’re unhappy, but we are going to change that. Opening old wounds isn’t gonna help.”

He loosens his grip on Blaine’s arm.

Blaine forces himself to nod.

The Blaine from this dimension has everything, but he’s unhappy.

“I… I’m gonna need some time alone.”

Blaine breaks free out of Wes’s grip and he disappears into the crowd.

* * *

In a place filled with press, it’s difficult to find a quiet place, but Blaine manages to find an empty room and the moment he shuts the door behind him, he starts to cry.

He hasn’t felt this miserable in ages.

Not only is Kurt happy without him, but he also doesn’t want anything to do with him. Blaine can’t blame him, since Blaine was awful towards him. What kind of selfish person is he in this dimension? Why would he easily break off with Kurt because of his own career? Blaine wants all of this, but with Kurt at his side.

The door slowly opens and Blaine attempts to dry his tears.

“You okay?”

Blaine nods and he looks up and he-

Well, he almost falls over.

He knows this man. He recognises him immediately, even when this man is wearing sunglasses.

It’s the shop owner. It’s the man who gave Blaine the book.

“Who are you?” Blaine yells. It’s a bit impolite, but Blaine is shocked.

The shop owner smiles kindly. “I guess I am the bouncer, but let’s be honest, Blaine. Would you believe me? I am an old man!”

He chuckles and he closes the door behind him.

“Who are you?” Blaine asks again.

“Oh right. We haven’t formally introduced ourselves towards each other. My name is Harvey Gilbert, and I gave you the access to all these dimensions.”

The shop owner holds out his hand and Blaine shakes it. Then it dawns upon him.

“Hang on, you’re-”

Gilbert nods enthusiastically. “I know you kept track of the mentions of my name. You and Kurt are very clever. I knew you two were the right people to send on this little adventure. Speaking of Kurt, I am here to take you home.”

“You’re taking me back to Kurt? My Kurt?”

Gilbert nods. “Your Kurt. He’s waiting for you. Do you want to come with me, or do you want to stay?”

Blaine frowns. Why the hell would he want to stay here when he can go back to his Kurt, who does love him? Blaine’s sure of it. After hopping from dimension to dimension, Blaine knows for sure that Kurt loves him, since Kurt puts an equal amount of effort in finding Blaine as Blaine puts in finding Kurt.

Why would he go back to a world where Kurt doesn’t love him like that?

He desperately wants to leave, but there’s one thing he has to do.

“Let me apologise to someone first,” Blaine says and Gilbert nods in agreement.

* * *

He texts Wes to meet him in one of the hallways of this building, since Blaine doesn’t feel like going back to the crowd. Wes finds him quickly.

“I’m sorry!” Blaine blurts out before Wes can even say anything.

Wes takes one look at Blaine and he throws his arms around him. Blaine slowly starts to cry from exhaustion. It’s been one hell of a day.

“I know you said all of that because you’re worried about me,” Blaine says, “But I will be okay. I’ve got you, and I should listen to you. You’re my best friend, Wes.”

Wes doesn’t say anything back. He just hugs Blaine tighter.

“Thank you, Wes, for always looking out for me.”

“You’re welcome, mate.”

The two men stand in the hallway, just hugging, until Wes pulls back. He also has tears in his eyes, but he seems relieved.

Blaine dries his tears.

“Alright. Ready to go back in?” Wes asks cautiously.

“I’ll be back in a second,” Blaine lies. Or maybe it isn’t a lie, but the Blaine Wes will see again is the Blaine from this dimension.

Wes doesn’t seem convinced, but he lets it slide. Wes goes back to the actual event and Blaine turns around, so that he can make his way back to Gilbert.

He slowly starts walking away.

“Blaine?”

Blaine stops in his tracks.

Kurt is calling for him. Blaine doesn’t turn around. He doesn’t want Kurt to know that he’s been crying.

“I’m… Well, I can’t really say that I am sorry,” Kurt says slowly, “But maybe I shouldn’t- I mean- Yeah, you’re right. We should talk, but not now. But you’re right that we should at least give ourselves closure.”

Blaine nods. He knows Kurt can see that he’s nodding.

“So, uhm, yeah. I’ll contact you, if that is okay?”

Blaine nods again.

“Right. Okay.”

Blaine can hear some shuffling, but eventually, he can hear footsteps walking away.

“Wait!” he yells out, before Kurt’s gone.

“Yes?” Kurt sounds farther away.

“… are you happy, Kurt?” Blaine asks sincerely.

There’s a small moment of silence, until Kurt answers: “Yes, very.”

Kurt is happy without Blaine.

Blaine takes it for what it is.

* * *

Blaine enters the quiet room again, and Gilbert is cleaning his sunglasses. He looks up when he hears the door opening.

“You can go back and make Blaine, this Blaine, happy,” Gilbert says kindly, “And I am not saying that it will be an easy thing to do, because depression is, as the young kids say, a bitch and it will not yield easily, but it will get better. You can help him with that.”

But Blaine shakes his head. “I… don’t think I should interfere.”

Gilbert shoots him a puzzling look.

“The Blaine from this dimension has a great support group, and I believe wholeheartedly in him. Besides, what if I interfere and I make Kurt unhappy in the process?”

Gilbert looks even more confused. “What do you mean?”

“Kurt is happy here and why should I change that?”

“But you aren’t.”

“But he is,” Blaine says back.

Gilbert puts his hand on Blaine’s shoulder and he looks very serious. “Blaine, isn’t this the behaviour that you have to unlearn? Putting your own happiness on the line for his?”

Blaine can understand Gilbert’s concern, but it’s different now.

“Again, I fully believe the Blaine from this dimension can be happy without Kurt, like Kurt is happy without Blaine. I don’t want to jeopardize his happiness in any way. I’d rather go back to my own Kurt where we can continue being happy together. Right now, I just want to go home.”

The concern slowly leaves Gilbert’s face and suddenly, the scenery starts to change. The venue slowly fades away.

Everything goes white and Blaine closes his eyes. When he opens them, Kurt’s running towards him and he basically throws himself at Blaine.

Kurt. _His_ Kurt.

“I am so happy to see you,” Kurt says and Blaine holds him tight.

Blaine looks at Gilbert and asks: “What was all this?”

His voice cracks. Why did Blaine have to see a world where all his dreams came true, but where he didn’t have Kurt? He hasn’t felt this miserable in ages.

“These parallel worlds showed you what could’ve happened,” Gilbert answers quietly, “They were wired in opposite directions. Kurt saw a world where dreams don’t come true, but how it doesn’t stop happiness. You, on the other hand, where thrown into a world where all your dreams came true, but you lost Kurt in the process.”

“I got that, yeah,” Blaine says bitterly, although he’s a bit surprised that Kurt was in a completely different place.

“And despite everything, despite the fact that you two could change things in these worlds, you decide to leave them as they are. Why is that?” Gilbert looks at the two of them.

“I am not happy, but Kurt is, and that’s what matters,” Blaine answers.

“Blaine is happy in this world and I wouldn’t change that,” Kurt says.

They speak at the same time. Kurt pulls back out of his embrace and the two of them stare at each other.

Gilbert smiles and says: “Very well.”

He plucks the floating book from the air and he hands it to Kurt and Blaine. Kurt opens the book. There are no new objects. This time, they don’t need them. He flips the page and both Kurt and Blaine looks at each other in shock.

“Is this real?” Blaine asks Gilbert.

“Very real.”

“We get to go home?” Kurt asks hopefully and Gilbert nods.

“Your journey is over, lads. It is time to wrap it up.”

As he says it, the words ‘The End’ start to grow. It is finally time to go home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blaine, the Blaine from the Parallel World dimension, is very unhappy and depressed. In one small piece of Wes’s dialogue, it is heavily implied that Blaine tried to kill himself by overdosing on medication.
> 
> And for the Finn warning, well, I didn’t know what else to call it. It’s not a ‘Character Death’, since Finn doesn’t die. He’s alive, and Kurt has to deal with that.
> 
> Last but not least, Harvey Gilbert has always been the shop owner, and he’s named after the LGBT icons Harvey Milk and Gilbert Baker.


	24. The end

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn. Here it is. When I started writing this story I had no idea that a) it would take me 4 months instead of 24 days and b) that it’d be… _this_. _This_ with all the Gilbert stuff and the books and the objects. All the pretty things that we could be started out as an idea of just 24 little standalone ficlets that take place in different settings, but it ended up being the longest fic I have ever written (over 70K, _holy sh-_ ).
> 
> And you’ve been here for that journey, and from the bottom of my heart, I thank you for it.
> 
> Oh, and last but not least: title of this fic is from the song Little Numbers by BOY. Yes, _that_ Little Numbers.

**Klaine Advent 2018 Day 24: Yoke**

**Own dimension: The end**

* * *

The words ‘The End’ are still spinning around them. Even though they’ve been through this for over twenty times, they still aren’t used to it. Kurt holds Blaine’s hand and he waits for them to get separated, but it never comes.

The words start to thin and slowly, they disappear.

Kurt and Blaine are still awake, and they’re still holding each other’s hand. Most importantly, they’re in the loft. The loft is spotless, there are familiar magazines on the coffee table, and the door is open. They’re back home and it’s as if they’ve never left. To them, they’ve been gone for a month, but it’s as if those days never existed.

They’re home.

Kurt pulls Blaine into a hug and they laugh and cheer. They did it. They survived the book, they managed to find each other in every dimension, and they’re home! They stand in the loft for a few minutes, just holding each other.

Sure, they’ve had their fun, but it’s so good to finally be back.

Suddenly, Kurt’s eyes widen. “I have a shift at Spotlight!”

Oh right, they left before Kurt could go to his shift, and since it looks like no time has passed, he still has to work.

Blaine prepares himself for the disappointment, but then Kurt smiles and says: “I quit. I go to work, but when I get home, I’m never going back.”

“Yeah?” Blaine says and he smiles as well.

“I realised a couple of dimensions ago that asking my dad for help isn’t the end of the world and that I should set my pride aside,” Kurt says, “I quit.”

Blaine’s smile widens. “Things are going to change, aren’t they?”

Kurt nods. “Definitely. If this journey has taught us one thing it’s that changes are coming.”

They can’t wait to see them.

* * *

The next day, Kurt wakes up feeling peaceful. He’s quit his job in the most extravagant way ever (by singing!) and Blaine’s lying next to him. Kurt has an evening class and Blaine has a day off for self-study, so they can sleep in.

But after a while, Kurt shakes Blaine awake.

“… mmm, what?”

Kurt leans in to kiss Blaine’s cheek. “Put on some pants, sweetheart. We have to go somewhere.”

“Five more minutes. We can do this now.”

Kurt smiles at the sight of Blaine pulling the sheets over his head. “Five more, but then we have to go.”

After ten, not five, minutes, Blaine properly wakes up. They get dressed and have breakfast before heading out. Blaine leads the way.

After a relatively short journey, they’re in front of the antique shop, and Blaine opens the heavy door. As expected, Gilbert is inside. He’s going through some of the books that are up for sale. When Gilbert hears the door opening, he looks over his shoulder, and he smiles warmly.

“Mr. Hummel, Mr. Anderson, welcome! I have been expecting you.”

Gilbert puts away some books and then he gives Kurt and Blaine his full attention.

Kurt and Blaine look at each other. They’ve rehearsed countless of messages of gratitude on the way to the shop, but now they’re both lost for words. It’s almost impossible to explain how they feel. The feelings of gratitude and happiness are inexplicable and they are both completely lost.

A simple thank you won’t do.

Gilbert raises an eyebrow, but it looks like he knows what they’re trying to say. He decides to put them out of their misery by saying: “So, you two did it then? You two survived the book, like I expected you to. Congratulations, you truly love each other.”

Kurt and Blaine once again look at each other and they smile.

“You said that if we’d be able to survive the book, we’d be able to survive everything,” Blaine says.

Gilbert nods enthusiastically. “Yes, and I knew the moment you walked into this shop that this book needed to be yours.”

Kurt is a bit surprised. “Oh, so you don’t want it back?” He opens his bag and he retrieves the book. “We came here with the intention of thanking you and returning the book.”

“Oh heaven’s no!” Gilbert backs away and laughs at the idea, “I gave this book to you, and you filled its pages with your memories of these dimensions. It’s definitely yours to keep.”

They had hoped for this, so Kurt doesn’t fight it. He holds the book close to his chest.

“These dimensions… did you create them?” Blaine asks.

“No,” both Gilbert and Kurt say at the same time.

Blaine’s gaze moves from Kurt to Gilbert and back to Kurt. “… what?”

“I already explained it to Kurt, but I didn’t make these dimensions. They simply put exist without my interference. There are too many dimensions out there!”

Kurt’s eyes widen. “There’s more?”

Gilbert nods in agreement. “Yes, there are an infinite amount of dimensions in this universe. I gave you the key to twenty-one of them. I couldn’t really choose the twenty-one dimensions myself, but I made sure they were all known to you to make it easier for you.”

Blaine frowns and Kurt tilts his head in confusion.

“Eh. No.”

Gilbert looks at Blaine in shock.

“No?” Gilbert asks.

“No,” Blaine says again.

“Yeah, some of these dimensions were completely unknown to us,” Kurt agrees, “Like the Carry On dimension.”

“The Good Place,” Blaine says, “I mean, even if I did know, Janet constantly asking me to murder her would still freak me out, I suppose. But I didn’t know, so her constantly asking me to murder her was really creepy.”

“And the Check, Please! one. Although Blaine had heard of it, but we didn’t exactly know of it.”

“Oh, and I am pretty sure that this San Myshuno is from a future expansion pack of The Sims 4,” Blaine adds.

Gilbert looks absolutely baffled. He scratches his chin and he’s in thought.

“Hmmm, I could swear you two were both fan of The Good Place and Carry On and Check, Please! and The Sims 4: City Living,” Gilbert says, “Sure, I know The Good Place has only just gotten very popular, but you should know of it by now.”

Blaine’s frown deepens. “Mr. Gilbert, what year is it?”

Gilbert looks up. “Well, I think I started out in December 2018, but I have the feeling that it is March 2019 by now.”

“… that doesn’t make any sense?” Kurt says. By now you’d think that he’s gotten used to weird things happening, but what is Gilbert talking about?

Gilbert chuckles. “Oh look at good ole me. I sound like Johnson.”

“Johnson?” Blaine asks.

“Oh, Kurt met him in the Check, Please! dimension. What a nice fella,” Gilbert answers happily, but then he shakes his head. Then he slaps himself on the forehead, which startles Kurt and Blaine. “It isn’t 2018 or 2019, is it?”

Kurt and Blaine exchange a look. Kurt sighs.

“Uh, no. It’s 2014, and only one day has passed in this dimension, not four months,” Kurt answers.

Gilbert once again slaps himself on the forehead.

“Oh, daft old me. I could’ve sworn it’s 2019 by now,” he says, “And Kurt, you’re right about only one day having passed! Gosh, the human linearity of time is such a weird concept for me, I’m sorry, it’s as if all years get yoked together at one point. My perception of time must be some kind of Jeremy Bearimy to you.”

Kurt and Blaine have given up by now. There are some things they’ll never know, and well, that’s okay then.

Gilbert continues rambling.

“Oh no! I accidentally sent you to things from your future! My, my, my, now I am really glad you ended up in Sinnoh instead of Galar when you travelled to the Pokémon dimension. Or now I don’t have to feel bad for not sending you to the Stardew Valley dimension. Oh, and also the-”

Blaine motions towards Gilbert to calm down. “Gilbert, maybe, uhm, not spoil future media, or whatever these things are, for us?”

“Oh. Yeah. Sorry,” Gilbert says, “I let myself go for a second.”

The three of them laugh at the absurdity of this entire situation. It looks like Kurt and Blaine were right. They really got transported to settings of future media. Or at least, media that take place in their future, since time works different in the universe as a whole.

Wow. This is insane.

“But all those dimensions… were they real?” Kurt asks when the laughter dies down.

“Of course they were,” Gilbert says, as if it’s obvious.

“So, alternate dimensions really do exist?”

“You’ve seen 21 of them and you’re still doubting whether alternate dimensions exist?”

Kurt turns a bit red from embarrassment. “Look, it’s been a weird couple of days.”

“As you pointed out, it’s only been less than one day from my perspective,” Gilbert tells Kurt.

But that was not the real reason behind the question. “No, I mean, if those alternate dimensions are real, then the Kurts and Blaines from those dimensions are real as well. What happened to them? We left some of them in a different setting.”

“Yes, and some of the other people in the dimensions were aware of the dimension hopping, or they saw us disappearing,” Blaine adds.

Gilbert motions towards the book and Kurt hands it over. Gilbert opens the book to the first dimension, namely the space dimension. “Seeing is believing,” he says and the images of the McKinley Air Craft crest and the Dalton Space Shuttle emblem start to glow.

Just when you think you’ve seen it all, this book manages to amaze you.

The two glowing images merge into one and they project something in the air. You can see the Kurt and Blaine from the space dimension in the projection, holding hands, and they’re surrounded by their crews.

“It takes a while, but Kurt and Blaine manage to bring peace to the universe by uniting the McKinley Air Craft fleet and the Dalton Space Shuttle fleet. Yes, Santana saw you disappear, but she won’t remember. Only the people from the superhero dimension remember, and Janet and Adam from The Good Place remember. All the Kurts and Blaines return to where you’ve left them, so they’re together. They can’t really recall you two interfering with their lives, but you push them closer in every dimension until they eventually fall in love.”

Kurt and Blaine stare at each other in awe. They made sure that all versions of them are together.

Gilbert shows them some more stories.

Kurt and Blaine are helping rebuild the post-apocalyptic world, Kurt and Blaine open their first joint art show about love at Gilbert’s Art Studio, Nightbird and Porcelain are still kicking ass, Kurt and Blaine have run away from the kingdoms and they now live together in the woods, Kurt and Blaine are directing a fashion show, Burt Hummel officiates their wedding in what looks like the White House… so many stories flash before their eyes.

Gilbert closes the book and he gives it back to Blaine. “All versions of you are happy, thanks to you. I highly recommend seeing all the stories, but I suppose we don’t have much time now.”

“What do you mean?” Blaine asks.

Gilbert smiles and there’s a hint of sadness when he says: “My time here is done, gentlemen.”

“Again, what do you mean?”

But Gilbert shakes his head. He offers them both a cup of tea and he asks them about their adventures. Kurt and Blaine have a lot of stories to tell, so they can fill hours, but they both realise that something is going on. Gilbert doesn’t talk about it.

After trading stories for two hours, it’s time for Kurt and Blaine to go home. It’s getting dark. They say their goodbyes and they walk back to the loft, hand in hand.

* * *

They get their answer the next day.

Kurt and Blaine are standing in front of what used to be the antique shop. All traces of Gilbert or the antique shop are gone, as if they never existed.

They should be spooked out. After all, this sounds like it comes straight from a mystery or paranormal novel.

But they’re just sad.

Blaine rests his head on Kurt’s shoulder and together they look at the empty building. It might look weird to the people around them, but this is New York. People see weird stuff all the time, so two men staring sadly at an empty building isn’t that bad.

This shop and this man have helped them more than they could’ve ever imagined, and now they’re both gone.

“Let’s go home,” Kurt says after a while. It’s no use dwelling over the loss of the shop.

Back at the loft, Kurt and Blaine open the book again. By now they know what has happened to all the other Kurts and Blaines, namely that they all got their happy endings. Gilbert and the shop might’ve disappeared, but they will forever have these memories and these stories.

The book has a special place in their bookshelf, next to the Sinnoh Region Guide Book and Blaine’s extra limited edition of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Blaine’s knife from the apocalypse hangs mounted on their wall, next to the framed list of art books, and next to another frame that holds both the business card from the Casbah Gallery and the Arts Quarter flyer. The photo’s on Blaine’s phone of San Myshuno have been printed. The Sinnoh map is hidden in the Sinnoh Region Guide Book. The weird MySims trophy is standing in their living room.

Kurt and Blaine will never forget these dimensions. They will never forget what they’ve seen and done.

They reminisce on the dimensions every now and then, but they move forward together. Changes happen. Some are relatively small, like Kurt reconnecting with Matt, to big ones like therapy and learning how to communicate better. All changes are good changes, though.

After all, they survived these dimensions. Now it’s time to live their best lives in their own dimension.

* * *

 _“As_ _if in every lifetime you and I have lived, we’ve chosen to come back and find each other and fall I love all over again, over and over for all of eternity. And I just feel so lucky that I found you so soon in this lifetime because all I want to do, all I’ve ever wanted to do is spend my life loving you.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really enjoyed writing this story and to keep track of it, [I actually made an Excel sheet online](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2F1drv.ms%2Fx%2Fs%21AuUiaDbcN8dzj3C65R8lPWBn_JCW&t=NmQ1Njk0MTJmZDk2OTA4NmIxNDdmNjY1YjY0NGYyOTRlNjM3NDI4MSxXNnc1Vk5sRw%3D%3D&b=t%3A1_FbMVvKlyXyfeQlKE-AmQ&p=http%3A%2F%2Fforabeatofadrum.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F183150076918%2Fall-the-pretty-things-that-we-could-be-2424&m=0), inspired by Adiwriting’s spreadsheet for her Hearing Verse. My spreadsheet is not as impressive as her’s, but if you’re curious about some things, you can click on it. The spreadsheet also contains some information about what happens to the Kurts and Blaines from all those dimensions, so if you’d like to know what they’re up to, the answer lie there. Since I didn’t want to make the spreadsheet too unclear, I don’t go into detail, but you can always message me on AO3 or tumblr (forabeatofadrum or justasmallbloginabigklainefandom).
> 
>  ****Once again thanks to the people who sent in AU suggestions, thanks to all the people who commented, thanks to Marjan for mentioning this fic on the klaineccficlibrary, thanks to the people on Plurk… JUST THANKS TO YOU ALL.


End file.
